Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/245

Rh Ganymede, and bade her read it. Then it turned out that Rosalind was not a whit more sensible than Orlando, except that being a woman, she could dissemble better, but loved the handsome youth after the same fashion that he loved her. What should she do next but set out in the forest to meet Orlando, still in her disguise, and having met him, engaged him for a talk, in which she played the saucy stripling to perfection. She accused him of being in love, and he confessed it. On which she promised to cure him of so ridiculous a complaint. Orlando, all the while believing her a shepherd youth, but in spite of himself drawn to her by an interest which was, very likely, a subtle instinct of recognition, asked her how she would cure love. Then she told him he might woo her as if she were indeed his Rosalind, and she, affecting all the caprices and humors of a girl, would so disgust him with the sex, that he would never wish to see a woman again. Thus began a friendship, and constant meetings between them, in which Orlando sighed the more for his true Rosalind, and the masquerading maiden grew more and more deep in love.

When Duke Frederick discovered that his laughter had fled with Rosalind, his rage was dreadful to behold. And happening at the same time to hear that Orlando was also missing, he