uch ado to keep the heavy drops of rain from reaching her
shoes and the bottom of her kirtle.

But she was attune with the storm, she loved to hear the weird sh-sh-sh
of the leaves, the monotonous drip of the rain on the roof of the summer
house, and in the intervals of intense blackness to catch sight of her
lover's face, pale of hue, with one large eye glancing cyclops-like into
hers, as a vivid flash of lightning momentarily tore the darkness
asunder and revealed him still crouching at her feet.

Intense lassitude followed the wild mental turmoil of that night. She
had arranged to meet him again two days hence in order to repeat to him
what she had heard the while of Sir Marmaduke's movements, and when she
was like to be free to go to Dover. During those intervening two days
she tried hard to probe her own thoughts; her mind, her feelings: but
what she found buried in the innermost recesses of her heart frightened
her so, that she gave up thinking.

She lay awake most of the night, telling herself how much she loved her
prince; she spent half a day in the perusal of a strange book called
_The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet_ by one William Shakespeare who had
lived not so long ago: and found herself pondering as to whether her own
sentiments with regard to her prince were akin to those so exquisitely
expressed by those two young people who had died because they loved one
another so dearly.

Then she heard that towards the end of the week Sir Marmaduke and
Mistress de Chavasse would be journeying together to Canterbury in order
to confer with Master Skyffington the lawyer, anent her own fortune,
which was to be handed to her in its entirety in less than three months,
when she would be of age.

CHAPTER XXII

BREAKING THE NEWS

Sir Marmaduke talked openly of this plan of going to Canterbury with
Editha de Chavasse, mentioning the following Friday as the most likely
date for his voyage.

Full of joy she brought the welcome news to her lover that same evening;
nor had she cause to regret then her ready acquiescence to his wishes.
He was full of tenderness then, of gentle discretion in his caresses,
showing the utmost respect to his future princess. He talked less of his
passion and more of his plans, in which now she would have her full
share. He confided some of his schemes to her: they were somewhat vague
and not easy to understand, but the manner in which he put them before
her, made them seem wonderfull