If I had no other cause to shun him, his character
would be sufficient."
Again the handkerchief was brought to the eyes effectively, for the
purpose of giving the king a little time in which to see how grievously
he had wronged her. It required but little time for him to realize how
cruel he had been, and in a moment he said pleadingly:--
"Your king asks your forgiveness. I do not suspect you of having gone
to see Hamilton. I am convinced that I was wrong. But won't you tell
me, please, why you visited the Old Swan? It is a decent tavern, I
understand, but a public place of the sort should not be visited by one
such as you unescorted."
"Your Majesty is right, and I thank you for the reprimand," returned
Frances, drying her eyes. "But Pickering, who is the host of the Old
Swan, has a daughter, Bettina, who is a good girl, far above her station.
She is my friend. I went to see her this morning to drink a cup of
wormwood wine with her. Now you know my reason for going."
Wormwood wine was considered a toper's drink.
Her confusion and modest hesitancy in confessing to the wormwood wine
were so pretty and so convincing that the king laughed and seized her by
the arm affectionately:--
"Ah, at last it is out!" he cried. "I have discovered your sin! I knew
you must have one tucked about you somewhere. Wormwood wine! Absinthe!
The drink of our depraved French friends! Who would have suspected you of
using it?"
"Yes," murmured Frances, glad to be found guilty of the wrong sin.
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