Dorothy promised, and they parted—­lord Herbert for the marquis’s parlour, Dorothy for the housekeeper’s room, and Caspar for the third table in the great hall.

After breakfast Dorothy practised with her plum until she could manage it with as much readiness as ease.  She found that it was made of steel, and that the bolts it threw out upon the slightest pressure were so rounded and polished that they could not hurt, while nothing but the key would reduce them again within their former sheath.

End of Vol.  I.