erhaps a year since my adventure with Mary, and I had
taken all that time trying to convince Jane that I did not mean a word
I had said to her mistress, and that I was very earnest in everything
I said to her. But Jane's ears would have heard just as much had they
been the pair of beautiful little shells they so much resembled. This
troubled me a great deal, and the best I could hope was that she held
me on probation.

On the evening of the day Mary came home to Greenwich, Brandon asked:
"Who and what on earth is this wonderful Mary I hear so much about?
They say she is coming home to-day, and the court seems to have gone
mad about it; I hear nothing but 'Mary is coming! Mary is coming!
Mary! Mary!' from morning until night. They say Buckingham is beside
himself for love of her. He has a wife at home, if I am right, and is
old enough to be her father. Is he not?" I assented; and Brandon
continued: "A man who will make such a fool of himself about a woman
is woefully weak. The men of the court must be poor creatures."

He had much to learn about the power of womanhood. There is nothing
on earth--but you know as much about it as I do.

"Wait until you see her," I answered, "and you will be one of them,
also. I flatter you by giving you one hour with her to be heels over
head in love. With an ordinary man it takes one-sixtieth of that time;
so you see I pay a compliment to your strength of mind."

"Nonsense!" broke in Brandon. "Do you think I left all my wits down in
Suffolk? Why, man, she is the sister of the king, and is sought by
kings and emperors. I might as well fall in love with a twinkling
star. Then, besides, my heart is not on my sleeve. You must think me a
fool; a poor, enervated, simpering fool like--like--well, like one of
those nobles of England. Don't put me down with them, Caskoden, if you
would remain my friend."

We both laughed at this sort of talk, which was a little in advance of
the time, for a noble, though an idiot, to the most of England was a
noble still, God-created and to be adored.

Another great bond of sympathy between Brandon and myself was a
community of opinion concerning certain theories as to the equality of
men and tolerance of religious thought. We believed that these things
would yet come, in spite of kingcraft and priestcraft, but wisely kept
our pet theories to ourselves: that is, between ourselves.

Of what use is it to argue the equality of human kind to a man who
honestly