break--break." He covered his face with his hands and sobbed, murmuring
as though to himself: "My God, I fear! I fear! She is my all--all! The
king has taken everything else, and now you ask me to give her to him."

A great lump came to my throat, but in a moment I was able to say: "Do
not fear, uncle, do not fear! Rather, rejoice! Let me be your staff, your
courage, your strength! Think it over till morning, and then give your
consent with the full assurance that it will mean happiness for the girl
whom you and I so dearly love."

The old man rose, took my hand, held it in his feeble grasp for a moment,
and went to his room without another word.

As I was going down the narrow passageway to my bedroom, Frances opened
her door and asked: "What does father say? I know it almost kills him."

"Yes," I answered. "But he will consent in the morning."

Tears came to her eyes and she gave me her hand, saying: "Thank you,
brother Ned. We are wounding him only for his own sake. If it were not to
help him, all the wealth in the world would not tempt me to give him this
pain nor to go to Whitehall, for I fear the place."

As she stood at the door, candle in hand, her low-cut gown exposing her
beautiful throat with its strong full curves, its gleaming whiteness and
the pulsing hollow at the base, her marvellous hair of sunlit gold
hanging in two thick braids to below her waist, her sweet oval face of
snowy whiteness, underlaid with the faint pink of roses, her great
luminous eyes with their arched and pencilled brows, and the tears
pendant from the long black lashes, I could not help knowing that there