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the sitting. Both the lords endeavoured to distinguish his face as he
sat between Lord Fitzwalter and Lord Arundel, but with no better success
than Lord Eure and Lord Annesley.
Gwynplaine, either by chance or by the arrangement of his sponsors,
forewarned by the Lord Chancellor, was so placed in shadow as to escape
their curiosity.
"Who is it? Where is he?"
Such was the exclamation of all the new-comers, but no one succeeded in
making him out distinctly. Some, who had seen Gwynplaine in the Green
Box, were exceedingly curious, but lost their labour: as it sometimes
happens that a young lady is entrenched within a troop of dowagers,
Gwynplaine was, as it were, enveloped in several layers of lords, old,
infirm, and indifferent. Good livers, with the gout, are marvellously
indifferent to stories about their neighbours.
There passed from hand to hand copies of a letter three lines in length,
written, it was said, by the Duchess Josiana to the queen, her sister,
in answer to the injunction made by her Majesty, that she should espouse
the new peer, the lawful heir of the Clancharlies, Lord Fermain. This
letter was couched in the following terms:--
"MADAM,--The arrangement will suit me just as well. I can have Lord
David for my lover.--(Signed) JOSIANA."
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