ey would
not take one; besides, how could you escape? I will answer the first
question you ever asked me. You are of 'sufficient consideration about
the court' for all your movements to attract notice. It is impossible;
we must not think of it; it cannot be done. Why build up hopes only to
be cast down?"

"Oh! but it can be done; never doubt it. I will go, not as a woman,
but as a man. I have planned all the details while sitting here.
To-morrow I will send to Bristol a sum of money asking a separate room
in the ship for a young nobleman who wishes to go to New Spain
_incognito_, and will go aboard just before they sail. I will buy a
man's complete outfit, and will practice being a man before you and
Sir Edwin." Here she blushed so that I could see the scarlet even in
the gathering gloom. She continued: "As to my escape, I can go to
Windsor, and then perhaps on to Berkeley Castle, over by Reading,
where there will be no one to watch me. You can leave at once, and
there will be no cause for them to spy upon me when you are gone, so
it can be done easily enough. That is it; I will go to my sister, who
is now at Berkeley Castle, the other side of Reading, you know, and
that will make a shorter ride to Bristol when we start."

The thought, of course, could not but please Brandon, to whom, in the
warmth of Mary's ardor, it had almost begun to offer hope; and he said
musingly: "I wonder if it could be done? If it could--if we could
reach New Spain, we might build ourselves a home in the beautiful
green mountains and hide ourselves safely away from all the world, in
the lap of some cosy valley, rich with nature's bounteous gift of
fruit and flowers, shaded from the hot sun and sheltered from the
blasts, and live in a little paradise all our own. What a glorious
dream! but it is only a dream, and we had better awake from it."

Brandon must have been insane!

"No! no! It is not a dream," interrupted downright, determined Mary;
"it is not a dream; it shall be a reality. How glorious it will be! I
can see our little house now nestling among the hills, shaded by great
spreading trees with flowers and vines and golden fruit all about it,
rich plumaged birds and gorgeous butterflies. Oh! I can hardly wait.
Who would live in a musty palace when one has within reach such a
home, and that, too, with you?"

Here it was again. I thought that interview would be the death of me.

Brandon held his face in his hands, and then looking u