those days, when wires in the air or under the sea by which to send
messages would have cost the inventors their lives as guilty of
witchcraft. While shaking hands with this old woman and speaking to
her, you lost sight of her and the present time and felt the air of
the sixteenth century blow in your face. Mary came up before you in
moving habit as she lived--the young Mary who caught all hearts, not
heartless herself, and laid hold of mere straws to save herself as
she drifted desperately with circumstances; not the woman who has been
painted as an actor from first to last, as coming forth draped for
effect at the very closing scene,--not that woman, but the girlish
queen who laughed and called to the echo, and forgot the cares of a
kingdom while she could.




IV.


"They are a nice family, those Ormistons," said Mr. Parker to his wife
as they drove to the railway-station in the moonlight.

"Very," said Mrs. Parker; "and Mr. Forrester is a nice lad. I hope he
and Miss Ormiston will make it out: I did my best for them."

"They'll be quite able to do the best for themselves: it is always
better to let things of that kind alone."

"I don't know that," said Mrs. Parker: "if a little shove is all that
is needed, it is a pity not to give it."