s about to
do the same, when her mistress signed to her to remain. She took her
place at the farther end of the apartment, and continued standing, as if
ready for attendance.

Meanwhile the Earl, for he was of no inferior rank, returned his lady's
caress with the most affectionate ardour, but affected to resist when
she strove to take his cloak from him.

"Nay," she said, "but I will unmantle you. I must see if you have kept
your word to me, and come as the great Earl men call thee, and not as
heretofore like a private cavalier."

"Thou art like the rest of the world, Amy," said the Earl, suffering her
to prevail in the playful contest; "the jewels, and feathers, and silk
are more to them than the man whom they adorn--many a poor blade looks
gay in a velvet scabbard."

"But so cannot men say of thee, thou noble Earl," said his lady, as the
cloak dropped on the floor, and showed him dressed as princes when they
ride abroad; "thou art the good and well-tried steel, whose inly worth
deserves, yet disdains, its outward ornaments. Do not think Amy can love
thee better in this glorious garb than she did when she gave her heart
to him who wore the russet-brown cloak in the woods of Devon."

"And thou too," said the Earl, as gracefully and majestically he led
his beautiful Countess towards the chair of state which was prepared
for them both--"thou too, my love, hast donned a dress which becomes
thy rank, though it cannot improve thy beauty. What think'st thou of our
court taste?"

The lady cast a sidelong glance upon the great mirror as they passed
it by, and then said, "I know not how it is, but I think not of my own
person while I look at the reflection of thine. Sit thou there," she
said, as they approached the chair of state, "like a thing for men to
worship and to wonder at."

"Ay, love," said the Earl, "if thou wilt share my state with me."

"Not so," said the Countess; "I will sit on this footstool at thy feet,
that I may spell over thy splendour, and learn, for the first time, how
princes are attired."

And with a childish wonder, which her youth and rustic education
rendered not only excusable but becoming, mixed as it was with a
delicate show of the most tender conjugal affection, she examined and
admired from head to foot the noble form and princely attire of him who
formed the proudest ornament of the court of England's Maiden Queen,
renowned as it was for splendid courtiers, as well as for wise
counsell