ved her kingdom
Catholic, and by her own mere might had chosen to make it Protestant;
the woman whose anointed hands were already red in the blood of God's
servants, yet hands which men fainted as they kissed....

Then on a sudden, as Elizabeth lifted her head this side and that, the
girl saw her.

She was sitting in a low carriage, raised on cushions, alone. Four tall
horses drew her at a slow trot: the wheels of the carriage were deep in
mud, since she had driven for an hour over the deep December roads; but
this added rather to the splendour within. But of this Marjorie
remembered no more than an uncertain glimpse. The air was thick with
cries; from window after window waved hands; and, more than all, the
loyalty was real, and filled the air like brave music.

There, then, she sat, smiling.

She was dressed in some splendid stuff; jewels sparkled beneath her
throat. Once a hand in an embroidered glove rose to wave an answer to
the roar of salute; and, as the carriage came beneath, she raised her
face.

It was a thin face, sharply pear-shaped, ending in a pointed chin; a
tight mouth smiled at the corners; above her narrow eyes and high brows
rose a high forehead, surmounted by strands of auburn hair drawn back
tightly beneath the little head-dress. It was a strangely peaked face,
very clear-skinned, and resembled in some manner a mask. But the look of
it was as sharp as steel; like a slender rapier, fragile and thin, yet
keen enough to run a man through. The power of it, in a word, was out of
all measure with the slightness of the face.... Then the face dropped;
and Marjorie watched the back of the head bending this way and that,
till the nodding heads that followed hid it from sight.

Marjorie drew a deep breath and turned. The faces of her friends were as
pale and intent as her own. Only the priest was as easy as ever.

"So that is our Eliza," he said.

Then he did a strange thing.

He lifted his cap once more with grave seriousness. "God save her
Grace!" he said.

CHAPTER IV

I

Robin bowed to her very carefully, and stood upright again.

* * * * *

She had seen in an instant how changed he was, in that swift instant in
which her eyes had singled him out from the little crowd of men that had
come into the room with Anthony at their head. It was a change which she
could scarcely have put into words, unless she had said that it was the
conception of the Levite