Scene 2. Meanwhile the Richmond fair was at its height. From a large

parchment the pompous _Sheriff_ had read the law by which all contracts for service made at the fair were binding for at least one year as soon as money had passed. Among those who had come to bid were a sturdy young farmer, _Plunkett_, and his foster-brother _Lionel_. The latter evidently was of a gentler birth, but his parentage was shrouded in mystery. As a child he had been left with _Plunkett's_ mother by a fugitive, an aged man who, dying from exposure and exhaustion, had confided the boy to her care, first, however, handing her a ring with the injunction that if misfortune ever threatened the boy, to show the ring to the queen.

One after another the girls proclaimed their deftness at cooking, sewing, gardening, poultry tending, and other domestic and rural accomplishments, the _Sheriff_ crying out, "Four guineas! Who'll have her?--Five guineas! Who'll try her?" Many of them cast eyes at the two handsome young farmers, hoping to be engaged by them. But they seemed more critical than the rest.

Just then they heard a young woman's voice behind them call out, "No, I won't go with you!" and, turning, they saw two sprightly young women arguing with a testy looking old man who seemed to have a ridiculous idea of his own importance. _Lionel_ and _Plunkett_ nudged each other. Never had they seen such attractive looking girls. And when they heard one of them call out again to the old man, "No, we won't go with you!"--for _Sir Tristan_ was urging the _Lady Harriet_ and _Nancy_ to leave the fair--the young men hurried over to the group.

"Can't you hear her say she won't go with you?" asked _Lionel_, while _Plunkett_ called out to the girls near the _Sheriff's_ stand, "Here, girls, is a bidder with lots of money!" A moment later the absurd old man was the centre of a rioting, shouting crowd of girls, who followed him when he tried to retreat, so that finally "Martha" and "Julia" were left quite alone with the two men. The young women were in high spirits. They had sallied forth in quest of adventure and here it was. _Lionel_ and _Plunkett_, on the other hand, suddenly had become very shy. There was in the demeanour of these girls something quite different from what they had been accustomed to in other serving maids. Somehow they had an "air," and it made the young men bashful. _Plunkett_ tried to push _Lionel_ forward, but the latter hung back.

"Watch me then," said _Plunkett_. He advanced as if to speak to the young women, but came to a halt and stood there covered with confusion. It chanced that _Lady Harriet_ and _Nancy_ had been watching these men with quite as much interest as they had been watched by them. _Lionel_, who bore himself with innate grace and refinement under his peasant garb, had immediately attracted "Martha," while the sturdier _Plunkett_ had caught "Julia's" eye, and they were glad when, after a few slyly reassuring glances from them, _Plunkett_ overcame his hesitancy and spoke up:

"You're our choice, girls! We'll pay fifty crowns a year for wages, with half a pint of ale on Sundays and plum pudding on New Year's thrown in for extras."

"Done!" cried the girls, who thought it all a great lark, and a moment later the _Lady Harriet_ had placed her hand in _Lionel's_ and _Nancy_ hers in _Plunkett's_ and money had passed to bind the bargain.

And now, thinking the adventure had gone far enough and that it was time for them to be returning to court, they cast about them for _Sir Tristan_. He, seeing them talking on apparently intimate terms with two farmers, was scandalized and, having succeeded in standing off the crowd by scattering money about him, he called out brusquely, "Come away!"

"Come away?" repeated _Plunkett_ after him. "_Come away?_ Didn't these girls let you know plainly enough a short time ago that they wouldn't hire out to you?"

"But I rather think," interposed "Martha," who was becoming slightly alarmed, "that it is time for 'Julia' and myself to go."

"What's that!" exclaimed _Plunkett_. "_Go?_ No, indeed," he added with emphasis. "You may repent of your bargain, though I don't see why. But it is binding for a year."

"If only you knew who," began _Sir Tristan_, and he was about to tell who the young women were. But "Martha" quickly whispered to him not to disclose their identity, as the escapade, if it became known, would make them the sport of the court. Moreover _Plunkett_ and _Lionel_ were growing impatient at the delay and, when the crowd again gathered about _Sir Tristan_, they hurried off the girls,--who did not seem to protest as much as might have been expected,--lifted them into a farm wagon, and drove off, while the crowd blocked the blustering knight and jeered as he vainly tried to break away in pursuit.