y heart was full. It is quite a distance from
London, and I thought it might afford a better opportunity to--to
see--I thought, perhaps Master Brandon might come--might want
to--to--see Jane and me; in fact I wrote him before I left Greenwich
that I should be here. Then I heard he had gone to New Spain. Now you
see how all my troubles have come upon me at once; and this the
greatest of them, because it is my fault. I can ask no forgiveness
from any one, for I cannot forgive myself."

She then inquired about Brandon's health and spirits, and I left out
no distressing detail you may be sure.

During my recital she sat with downcast eyes and tear-stained face,
playing with the ribbons of her hat.

When I was ready to go she said: "Please say to Master Brandon I
should like--to--see--him, if he cares to come, if only that I may
tell him how it happened."

"I greatly fear, in fact, I know he will not come," said I. "The
cruelest blow of all, worse even than the dungeon, or the sentence of
death, was your failure to save him. He trusted you so implicitly. At
the time of his arrest he refused to allow me to tell the king, saying
he knew you would see to it--that you were pure gold."

"Ah, did he say that?" she asked, as a sad little smile lighted her
face.

"His faith was so entirely without doubt, that his recoil from you is
correspondingly great. He goes to New Spain as soon as his health is
recovered sufficiently for him to travel."

This sent the last fleck of color from her face, and with the words
almost choking her throat: "Then tell him what I have said to you and
perhaps he will not feel so--"

"I cannot do that either, Lady Mary. When I mentioned your name the
other day he said he would curse me if I ever spoke it again in his
hearing."

"Is it so bad as that?" Then, meditatively: "And at his trial he did
not tell the reason for the killing? Would not compromise me, who had
served him so ill, even to save his own life? Noble, noble!" And her
lips went together as she rose to her feet. No tears now; nothing but
glowing, determined womanhood.

"Then I will go to him wherever he may be. He shall forgive me, no
matter what my fault."

Soon after this we were on our way to London at a brisk gallop.

We were all very silent, but at one time Mary spoke up from the midst
of a reverie: "During the moment when I thought Master Brandon had
been executed--when you said it was too late--it seemed that I was
born