"You afraid of me!" she said.

"Yes--you seem so nymph-like and elusive. I do not know if I am really
looking at an ordinary earth-maiden, or whether you will melt away."

"I am quite real," and she smiled, "but now you must notice these two
rooms a little that we shall pass through. They are very ghostly I
think; they were the Sir Timothy's who went to fetch James I from
Scotland. I am glad they are not mine, but the long gallery I love; it
is my sitting-room--my very own--and in it I keep something which
matters to me more than anything else in the world." Then she went on,
with a divine shyness which thrilled her companion: "And--I do not know
why--but I think I will show it to you."

"Yes, please do that," he responded eagerly, "and do not let us stop to
look at the ghostly apartments--where you sit interests me far more."

So they went rapidly through Sir Timothy's rooms, with the great state
bed where had slept his royal master, so the tale ran, and on down some
uneven steps, and through a small door, and there found themselves in
the long, narrow room, with its bays along the southern side, and one
splendid mullioned casement at the end with coats-of-arms emblazoned
upon each division. And through this, which looked west, there poured
the lowered afternoon sun with a broad shaft of glorious light.

The place was almost empty, but for a chest or two and a table near this
window with writing materials and books. And upon a rough set of shelves
close at hand many more volumes reposed.