Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/44

34 with much pleasure. At dessert the Count partook, among other fruits and sweets, of a pomegranate, and while he did so a seed fell on his long flowing beard, which he removed with his fork, and then put it into his mouth.

The young princess, who had been watching every movement of the Count with shy but scrutinizing eyes, and saw what he had done, was much disgusted at the unseemly act, and, with evident displeasure in her angry eyes, she said that she would not have for her husband a man that could behave so disgustingly at table. He should have wiped the pomegranate seed off his beard with the table napkin and left it there. The Count was startled by her words and her change of manner towards him; he rose from table mortified and hurt, and said he was astonished to find that for so slight a fault she should discard him and put him to shame before all present. But he promised he would be revenged for the insult offered him; a day should come when she would be thankful to eat pilgrims' dry hard bread, drink out of a ditch, and take her meals off straw. The Count then left the palace with his attendants, and returned home.

A few days after this untoward incident, a negro came to the palace and offered himself to the king as gardener, and obtained the situation. Whenever the princess walked in the garden and palace grounds,