oof, to
pray her submit to her father's will. Mary had withstood her with a more
good-humoured irony; and, whilst she was in the midst of her pleadings,
a letter marked most pressing was brought to her. The Queen opened it,
and raised her eyebrows; she looked down at the subscription and
frowned. Then she cast it upon the table.

'Shall there never be an end of old things?' she said.

'Even what old things?' the Lady Mary asked.

The Queen shrugged her shoulders.

'It was not they I came to talk of,' she said. 'I would sleep early, for
the King comes to-morrow and I have much to plead with you.'

'I am weary of your pleadings,' the Lady Mary said. 'You have pleaded
enow. If you would be fresh for the King, be first fresh for me. Start a
new hare.'

The Queen would have gainsaid her.

'I have said you have pleaded enow,' the Lady Mary said. 'And you have
pleaded enow. This no more amuses me. I will wager I guess from whom
your letter was.'

Reluctantly the Queen held her peace; that day she had read in many
ancient books, as well profane as of the Fathers of the Church, and she
had many things to say, and they were near her lips and warm in her
heart. She was much minded to have good news to give the King against
his coming on the morrow; the great good news that should set up in that
realm once more abbeys and chapters and the love of God. But she could
not press these sayings upon the girl, though she pleaded still with her
blue eyes.

'Your letter is from Sir Nicholas Throckmorton,' the Lady Mary said.
'Even let me read it.'

'You did know that that knight was come to Court again?' the Queen said.

'Aye; and that you would not see him, but like a fool did bid him depart
again.'

'You will ever be calling me a fool,' Katharine retorted, 'for giving
ear to my conscience and hating spies and the suborners of false
evidence.'

'Why,' the Lady Mary answered, 'I do call it a folly to refuse to give
ear to the tale of a man who has ridden far and fast, and at the risk of
a penalty to tell it you.'

'Why,' Katharine said, 'if I did forbid his coming to the Court under a
penalty, it was because I would not have him here.'

'Yet he much loved you, and did you some service.'

'He did me a service of lies,' the Queen said, and she was angry. 'I
would not have had him serve me. By his false witness Cromwell was cast
down to make way for me. But I had rather have cast down Cromwell by the
truth which is from G