when, from the
further door the drooping girl appeared, still with downcast eyes,
nun-like in her meek obedience. She came forward perhaps a third the
length of the room, faltered, and stood.

"Mary," said the king, "they told me you were beautiful, but I come
to announce to you that such is not my opinion. You are ambitious,
it would seem, so I tell you frankly, you will never be Queen of
Scotland."

For the first time in his presence the girl uncovered her eyes and
looked up at him.

"Yes," said the king, "your eyes are fine. I am constrained to concede
that much, and if I do not wed you myself it is but right I should
nominate a candidate for your hand. There is a friend of mine for whom
I shall use my influence with Francis and your father that they may
persuade you to marry him. He is young Talbot, Constable of Falaise, a
demented stripling who calls you the Pearl of France. Ah, now the
colour comes to your cheeks. I would not have believed it. All this
demureness then----" But the girl had sunk at his feet, grasped his
hand and pressed it to her lips.

"Tut, tut," he cried hastily, "that is a reversal of the order of
nature. Rise, and when I send young Talbot to you, see that you
welcome him; and now, good-day to you."

As he passed through the outer room the duchesse lay in wait for him
and began murmuring apologies for her daughter's diffidence.

"We have arranged all about the wedding, madam," said the king
reassuringly as he left the palace.

The next day at the hour when the king had met Madeleine for the first
time, he threaded his way eagerly through the mazes of the old castle
until he came to the door that led him out into the Elysian garden.
The weather still befriended him, being of an almost summer mildness.

For several minutes he paced impatiently up and down the gravel walk,
but no laughing face greeted him from the battlements above. At last,
swearing a good round Scottish oath he said, "I'll solve the mystery
of the balcony," and seizing the lower branch of the tree, he was
about to climb as he had done before, when a tantalizing silvery laugh
brought his arms down to his sides again. It seemed to come from an
arbour at the further end of the grounds, but when he reached there
the place proved empty. He pretended to search among the bushes, but
nevertheless kept an eye on the arbour, when his sharp ear caught a
rustling of silk from behind the summer-house. He made a dash towards
it, th