In the meantime, Mr. Billings waited and waited. And what was the
conversation of his worthy parents inside the garden? I cannot say;
but one of the waiters declared that he had served the great foreign
Count with two bowls of rack-punch, and some biscuits, in No. 3:
that in the box with him were first a young gentleman, who went
away, and a lady, splendidly dressed and masked: that when the lady
and his Lordship were alone, she edged away to the further end of
the table, and they had much talk: that at last, when his Grace had
pressed her very much, she took off her mask and said, "Don't you
know me now, Max?" that he cried out, "My own Catherine, thou art
more beautiful than ever!" and wanted to kneel down and vow eternal
love to her; but she begged him not to do so in a place where all
the world would see: that then his Highness paid, and they left the
gardens, the lady putting on her mask again.
When they issued from the gardens, "Ho! Joseph la Rose, my coach!"
shouted his Excellency, in rather a husky voice; and the men who had
been waiting came up with the carriage. A young gentleman, who was
dosing on one of the posts at the entry, woke up suddenly at the
blaze of the torches and the noise of the footmen.
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