"If she means to save him, why does she not save him now? Why not end
the business in a day--not stretch it over these long mid-summer weeks?"

"I do not think it strange," she answered. "He is a political prisoner.
Messages must come and go between England and France. Besides, who
calleth for haste? Is it I who have most at stake? It is not the first
time I have been at Court, my lord. In these high places things are
orderly,"--a touch of sarcasm came into her tone,--"life is not a mighty
rushing wind, save to those whom vexing passion drives to hasty deeds."

She made to move on once more, but paused, still not certain of her way.

"Permit me to show you," he said with a laugh and a gesture towards a
path. "Not that--this is the shorter. I will take you to a turning which
leads straight to your durance--and another which leads elsewhere."

She could not say no, because she had, in very truth, lost her way, and
she might wander far and be in danger. Also, she had no fear of him.
Steeled to danger in the past, she was not timid; but, more than all,
the game of words between them had had its fascination. The man himself,
by virtue of what he was, had his fascination also. The thing inherent
in all her sex, to peep over the hedge, to skirt dangerous fires
lightly, to feel the warmth distantly and not be scorched--that was
in her, too; and she lived according to her race and the long
predisposition of the ages. Most women like her--as good as she--have
peeped and stretched out hands to the alluring fire and come safely
through, wiser and no better. But many, too, bewildered and confused
by what they see--as light from a mirror flashed into the eye half
blinds--have peeped over the hedge and, miscalculating their power
of self-control, have entered in, and returned no more into the quiet
garden of unstraying love.

Leicester quickly put on an air of gravity. "I warn you that danger lies
before you. If you cross the Queen--and you will cross the Queen
when you know the truth, as I know it--you will pay a heavy price for
refusing Leicester as your friend."

She made a protesting motion and seemed about to speak, but suddenly,
with a passionate gesture, Leicester added: "Let them go their way.
Monsieur de la Foret will be tossed aside before another winter comes.
Do you think he can abide here in the midst of plot and intrigue, and
hated by the people of the Court? He is doomed. But more, he is unworthy
of you; while I ca