son
to her cheeks and the anger to her eyes. Suddenly she burst forth
passionately: "The King is the King! What is a subject's will to clash
with his? What weighs a woman's heart against his whim? Little cared
he that my hand held back, grew cold at the touch of that other hand
in which he would have put it. What matter if my will was against that
marriage? It was but the will of a girl, and must be broken. All my
world was with the King; I, who stood alone, was but a woman, young and
untaught. Oh, they pressed me sore, they angered me to the very heart!
There was not one to fight my battle, to help me in that strait, to show
me a better path than that I took. With all my heart, with all my soul,
with all my might, I hate that man which that ship brought here to-day!
You know what I did to escape them all, to escape that man. I fled from
England in the dress of my waiting maid and under her name. I came to
Virginia in that guise. I let myself be put up, appraised, cried for
sale, in that meadow yonder, as if I had been indeed the piece of
merchandise I professed myself. The one man who approached me with
respect I gulled and cheated. I let him, a stranger, give me his name. I
shelter myself now behind his name. I have foisted on him my quarrel.
I have--Oh, despise me, if you will! You cannot despise me more than I
despise myself!"

I stood with my hand upon the table and my eyes studying the shadow
of the vines upon the floor. All that she said was perfectly true,
and yet--I had a vision of a scarlet and black figure and a dark and
beautiful face. I too hated my Lord Carnal.

"I do not despise you, madam," I said at last. "What was done two weeks
ago in the meadow yonder is past recall. Let it rest. What is mine is
yours: it's little beside my sword and my name. The one is naturally at
my wife's service; for the other, I have had some pride in keeping it
untarnished. It is now in your keeping as well as my own. I do not fear
to leave it there, madam."

I had spoken with my eyes upon the garden outside the window, but now I
looked at her, to see that she was trembling in every limb,--trembling
so that I thought she would fall. I hastened to her. "The roses," she
said,--"the roses are too heavy. Oh, I am tired--and the room goes
round."

I caught her as she fell, and laid her gently upon the floor. There
was water on the table, and I dashed some in her face and moistened
her lips; then turned to the door to get woman