ly glimmering chance that
fortune, finding him there almost alone, might, for lack of another
lover, smile upon him by way of squaring accounts. She might lead him
to a cavern of gold, and gold would do anything; even, perhaps,
purchase so priceless a treasure as a certain princess of the blood
royal. He did not, however, dwell much on this possibility, but kept
the delightful hope well neutralized with a constantly present sense
of its improbability, in order to save the pain of a long fall when
disappointment should come.

Brandon at once accepted the king's offer of lodging in the palace,
for now that he felt sure of himself in the matter of New Spain, and
his separation from Mary, he longed to see as much as possible of her
before the light went out forever, even though it were playing with
death itself to do so.

Poor fellow, his suffering was so acute during this period that it
affected me like a contagion.

It did not make a mope of him, but came in spasms that almost drove
him wild. He would at times pace the room and cry out: "Jesu!
Caskoden, what shall I do? She will be the wife of the French king,
and I shall sit in the wilderness and try every moment to imagine what
she is doing and thinking. I shall find the bearing of Paris, and
look in her direction until my brain melts in my effort to see her,
and then I shall wander in the woods, a suffering imbecile, feeding on
roots and nuts. Would to God one of us might die. If it were not
selfish, I should wish I might be the one."

I said nothing in answer to these outbursts, as I had no consolation
to offer.

We had two or three of our little meetings of four, dangerous as they
were, at which Mary, feeling that each time she saw Brandon might be
the last, would sit and look at him with glowing eyes that in turn
softened and burned as he spoke. She did not talk much, but devoted
all her time and energies to looking with her whole soul. Never before
or since was there a girl so much in love. A young girl thoroughly in
love is the most beautiful object on earth--beautiful even in
ugliness. Imagine, then, what it made of Mary!

Growing partly, perhaps, out of his unattainability--for he was as far
out of her reach as she out of his--she had long since begun to
worship him. She had learned to know him so well, and his valiant
defense of her in Billingsgate, together with his noble self-sacrifice
in refusing to compromise her in order to save himself, had presen