elle_; sickness dares not touch me.'

'Then,' said the Queen, 'you will be served in your chamber, and we will
finish our game.'

Henry turned submissively away; but Bedford tarried an instant to say,
'Fair sister, he is sore distressed. It would comfort him to have you
with him. He has longed for you.'

Catherine opened her beautiful brown eyes in a stare of surprise and
reproof at the infraction of the rules of ceremony which she had brought
with her. John of Bedford had never seemed to her either _beau_ or
_courtois_, and she looked unutterable things, to which he replied by an
elevation of his marked eyebrows.

She sat down to her game, utterly ignoring the other princes in their
weather-beaten condition; and they were forced to follow the King, and
make their way to their several chambers, for Queen Catherine's will was
law in matters of etiquette.

'The proud peat! She is jealous of every word Harry speaks--even to his
cousin,' muttered James, as he reached his own room. 'You saw her,
though,--you saw her!' he added, smiling, as he laid his hand on
Malcolm's shoulder.

The boy coloured like a poppy, and answered awkwardly enough, 'The Lady
Joan, Sir?'

'Who but the Lady Joan, thou silly lad? How say'st thou? Will not
Scotland forget in the sight of that fair face all those fule
phantasies--the only folly I heard at Glenuskie?'

'Methinks,' said Malcolm, looking down in sheer awkwardness, 'it were
easier to bow to her than to King Harry's dame. She hath more of
stateliness.'

'Humph!' said James, 'dost so serve thy courtly 'prenticeship? Nay, but
in a sort I see thy meaning. The royal blood of England shows itself to
one who hath an eye for princeliness of nature.'

'Nay,' said Malcolm, gratified, 'those dark eyes and swart locks--'

'Dark eyes--swart locks!' interrupted the King. 'His wits have gone wool-
gathering.'

'Indeed, Sir!' exclaimed Malcolm, 'I thought you meant the lady who stood
by the Queen's table, with the grand turn of the neck and the white
wimple and veil.'

'Pshaw!' said James; 'the foolish callant! he hath taken that great brown
Luxemburg nun of Dame Jac's for the Rose of Somerset.'

However, James, seeing how confounded the boy was by this momentary
displeasure, explained to him who the other persons he had seen
were--Jaqueline, the runaway Countess of Hainault in her own right, and
Duchess of Brabant by marriage; Humfrey, duke of Gloucester, the King's
young, bri