red, have never shown any preference for me? I felt that
I loved Henry Howard, but this love was a sin, for the Earl of Surrey
was married. I therefore tore my heart from him by violence, and gave
it to God, because the only man whom I could love did not return my
affection. But even God and devotion are not able to entirely fill a
woman's heart. In my breast there was still room for ambition; and since
I could not be a happy wife, I would at least be a powerful queen. Oh,
everything was so well devised, so nicely arranged! Gardiner had already
spoken of me to the king, and inclined him to his plan; and while I
was hastening at his call from Duma, hither, this little Catharine Parr
comes between and snatches him from me, and overturns all our schemes.
I will never forgive her. I will find a way to revenge myself. I will
force her to leave this place, which belongs to me, and if there is no
other way for it, she must go the way of the scaffold, as did Catharine
Howard. I will be Queen of England, I will--"

She suddenly interrupted her soliloquy, and listened. She thought she
heard a slight knock at the door. She was not mistaken; this knock was
now repeated, and indeed with a peculiar, significant stroke.

"It is my father!" said Lady Jane, and, as she resumed again her grave
and quiet air, she proceeded to open the door.

"Ah, you expected me, then?" said Lord Archibald Douglas, kissing his
daughter's forehead.

"Yes, I expected you, my father," replied Lady Jane with a smile. "I
knew that you would come to communicate to me your experiences and
observations during the day, and to give me directions for the future."

The earl seated himself on the ottoman, and drew his daughter down by
him.

"No one can overhear us, can they?"

"Nobody, my father! My women are sleeping in the fourth chamber from
here, and I have myself fastened the intervening doors. The anteroom
through which you came is, as you know, entirely empty, and nobody can
conceal himself there. It remains, then, only to fasten the door leading
thence into the corridor, in order to be secure from interruption."

She hastened into the anteroom to fasten the door.

"Now, my father, we are secure from listeners," said she, as she
returned and resumed her place on the ottoman.

"And the walls, my child? know you whether or no the walls are safe?
You look at me with an expression of doubt and surprise! My God, what a
harmless and innocent little maiden