of courtly life, the same mind raised one no
longer in the bloom of youth, with no striking advantages of person, and
studiously disdainful of all the fopperies of the time, to an equality
with the youngest, the fairest, the gaudiest courtier, in that rivalship
which has pleasure for its object and love for its reward. Many a heart
beat quicker as the graceful courtier, with that careless wit which
veiled his profound mournfulness of character, or with that delicate
flattery which his very contempt for human nature had taught him, moved
from dame to donzell; till at length, in the sight and hearing of the
Lady Bonville, as she sat, seemingly heedless of his revenge, amidst
a group of matrons elder than herself, a murmur of admiration made him
turn quickly, and his eye, following the gaze of the bystanders, rested
upon the sweet, animated face of Sibyll, flushed into rich bloom at the
notice it excited. Then as he approached the maiden, his quick glance
darting to the woman he had first loved told him that he had at last
discovered the secret how to wound. An involuntary compression of
Katherine's proud lips, a hasty rise and fall of the stately neck, a
restless, indescribable flutter, as it were, of the whole frame, told
the experienced woman-reader of the signs of jealousy and fear. And he
passed at once to the young maiden's side. Alas! what wonder that Sibyll
that night surrendered her heart to the happiest dreams; and finding
herself on the floors of a court, intoxicated by its perfumed air,
hearing on all sides the murmured eulogies which approved and justified
the seeming preference of the powerful noble, what wonder that she
thought the humble maiden, with her dower of radiant youth and exquisite
beauty, and the fresh and countless treasures of virgin love, might be
no unworthy mate of the "new lord"?

It was morning [The hours of our ancestors, on great occasions, were not
always more seasonable than our own. Froissart speaks of court balls, in
the reign of Richard II., kept up till day.] before the revel ended; and
when dismissed by the Duchess of Bedford, Sibyll was left to herself,
not even amidst her happy visions did the daughter forget her office.
She stole into her father's chamber. He, too, was astir and up,--at work
at the untiring furnace, the damps on his brow, but all Hope's vigour at
his heart. So while Pleasure feasts, and Youth revels, and Love deludes
itself, and Ambition chases its shadows (chas