body--soul and body!" She bent over him, and there fell from her eyes a
bright rain of tears, quickly come, quickly checked. "Ah, a contrary
world of queens and guardians!" she cried. "Oh, my God! if thou mightst
only make me thy wife before thou goest!"

He arose and drew her into his arms. "The story is true," he whispered,
to which she answered:

"I care not! Sayest thou, 'A thing was done.' Say I, '_Thou_ didst it!'
and high above the deed I love thee!"

Suddenly she fell into a storm of weeping, then broke from him, and
somewhat blindly sought the garden seat, sank down upon it, and buried
her face in her arms. He kneeled beside her, and presently she was
crouching against his breast, that rose and fell with his answering
emotion. She put up her hand and touched the deep lines of past
suffering in the face above her.

"I know that thou must go," she said. "I would not have thee stay. But,
Mortimer, if it were possible ... He forgave you long, long ago, for he
loved you above all men. I, his sister, answer for him. Ah, God wot!
brother and sister we have loved you well.... If I could keep tryst,
after all, if thou couldst make me thy wife before thou goest--or if
kindred and the Queen be too powerful, I could escape, could follow thee
as thy page, trusting thy honor ... Ah, look not so upon me! Ah, to be a
woman and do one's own wooing! Ah, think what thou wilt of me, only know
that I love thee to the uttermost!"

[Illustration: "'AH, LOOK NOT SO UPON ME!'"]