Being now in the teeth of the Association, there was nothing to do but to
go on, since, if she did not, the next few steps of their advance would
disclose her. She made the best of it, and began to descend in the broad
view of the assembly, from the midst of which proceeded a laugh--'Hee-hee-
hee!' Ethelberta knew that Lord Mountclere was there.

'The poor thing has strayed from its owner,' said one lady, as they all
stood eyeing the apparition of the ass.

'It may belong to some of the villagers,' said the President in a
historical voice: 'and it may be appropriate to mention that many were
kept here in olden times: they were largely used as beasts of burden in
victualling the castle previous to the last siege, in the year sixteen
hundred and forty-five.'

'It is very weary, and has come a long way, I think,' said a lady;
adding, in an imaginative tone, 'the humble creature looks so aged and is
so quaintly saddled that we may suppose it to be only an animated relic,
of the same date as the other remains.'

By this time Lord Mountclere had noticed Ethelberta's presence, and
straightening himself to ten years younger, he lifted his hat in answer
to her smile, and came up jauntily. It was a good time now to see what
the viscount was really like. He appeared to be about sixty-five, and
the dignified aspect which he wore to a gazer at a distance became
depreciated to jocund slyness upon nearer view, when the small type could
be read between the leading lines. Then it could be seen that his upper
lip dropped to a point in the middle, as if impressing silence upon his
too demonstrative lower one. His right and left profiles were different,