e what Dame Ysabeau had
said. The plentiful brown hair fell about this Rosamund's face, which
was white and shrewd. "A part of what you say, madame, I understand.
I know that Gregory Darrell loves me, yet I have long ago acknowledged
he loves me but as one pets a child, or, let us say, a spaniel which
reveres and amuses one. I lack his wit, you comprehend, and so he
never speaks to me all that he thinks. Yet a part of it he tells me,
and he loves me, and with this I am content. Assuredly, if they give
me to Sarum I shall hate Sarum even more than I detest him now. And
then, I think, Heaven help me! that I would not greatly grieve-- Oh,
you are all evil!" Rosamund said; "and you thrust thoughts into my mind
I may not grapple with!"

"You will comprehend them," the Queen said, "when you know yourself a
chattel, bought and paid for."

The Queen laughed. She rose, and either hand strained toward heaven.
"You are omnipotent, yet have You let me become that into which I am
transmuted," she said, very low.

Anon she began, as though a statue spoke through motionless and pallid
lips. "They have long urged me, Rosamund, to a deed which by one
stroke would make me mistress of these islands. To-day I looked on
Gregory Darrell, and knew that I was wise in love--and I had but to
crush a filthy worm to come to him. Eh, and I was tempted--!"

The fearless girl said: "Let us grant that Gregory loves you very
greatly, and me just when his leisure serves. You may offer him a
cushioned infamy, a colorful and brief delirium, and afterward
demolishment of soul and body; I offer him contentment and a level
life, made up of tiny happenings, it may be, and lacking both in
abysses and in skyey heights. Yet is love a flame wherein must the
lover's soul be purified, as an ore by fire, even to its own discredit;
and thus, madame, to judge between us I dare summon you."

"Child, child!" the Queen said, tenderly, and with a smile, "you are
brave; and in your fashion you are wise; yet you will never comprehend.
But once I was in heart and soul and body all that you are to-day; and
now I am Queen Ysabeau. Assuredly, it would be hard to yield my single
chance of happiness; it would be hard to know that Gregory Darrell must
presently dwindle into an ox well-pastured, and garner of life no more
than any ox; but to say, 'Let this girl become as I, and garner that
which I have garnered--!' Did you in truth hear nothing, Rosamund?"

"W