t.

For the three days that the queen remained at the Hall her demeanor was
such as to fill its master with a vague uneasiness. Lady Stafford she
hardly tolerated, and though Lord Stafford lavished gifts upon her, yet
she refused to be propitiated.

"Surely," Francis heard her father say to her mother, "the remark of a
child would not suffice for such behavior? Elizabeth is vain beyond most
women, yet 'twere doing her an injustice to deem her capable of
resentment for so slight a thing. Can she have learned of Ballard's
presence in England? Of our visit to Chartley? And yet none save we
three knew whither we went. And you would be discreet, I trow. Francis,
young as she is, would reveal naught that would do me harm. She is too
straightforward, too truthful,"--he stopped with a light laugh and kissed
his wife. "What spirit the girl had to tell the queen that thou wert
fairer," he said. "Thou art so in truth, Penelope, yet for my life I
durst not tell it to Elizabeth."

"Nay; I would not have thee to, my lord. Say that Elizabeth is the
loveliest, the fairest of womankind, I care not so that I may keep thee
with me. But our child, my lord! I fear for that very directness which
thou dost commend. A weaker spirit would be more politic. I would not
that she be less truthful, but I wish, I wish----"

"Nay, sweetheart, wish not that she be other than she is. I would not
have her fawning upon the queen as do the maids of the court. Dost mark
what words of flattery they utter and yet with what ridicule they speak
of her to each other when they think that there is none to hear? I would
not that Francis should be as they are."

"Nor I," acquiesced the mother. "Yet sometimes truth doth not meet with
the merit it deserves."

"True; but let us think not on that, but be grateful that our child is as
she is."

Francis' heart glowed with love and tenderness toward her parents, and
she was grieved that words of hers had brought such disquiet upon them.

"I must try," she mused, "to retain my truth and yet not offend by it.
But how could I have said other than I did? My mother is fairer to me.
There was but the one answer to be given to such a question."

Over and over she turned the matter in her mind striving to reconcile
policy with truthfulness. A problem which has vexed the souls of men
since the beginning of time.

At last the queen took her departure. As she bade her host and hostess
farewell, she said:

"Madam, I than