"They would be about me like vultures if I were weak fool enough to let
them," she said to Anne. "They cringe and grovel like spaniels, and
flatter till 'tis like to make one sick. 'Tis always so with toadies;
they have not the wit to see that their flattery is an insolence, since
it supposes adulation so rare that one may be moved by it. The men with
empty pockets would marry me, forsooth, and the women be dragged into
company clinging to my petticoats. But they are learning. I do not
shrink from giving them sharp lessons."

This she did without mercy, and in time cleared herself of hangers-on, so
that her banquets and assemblies were the most distinguished of the time,
and the men who paid their court to her were of such place and fortune
that their worship could but be disinterested.

Among the earliest to wait upon her was his Grace of Osmonde, who found
her one day alone, save for the presence of Mistress Anne, whom she kept
often with her. When the lacquey announced him, Anne, who sat upon the
same seat with her, felt her slightly start, and looking up, saw in her
countenance a thing she had never beheld before, nor had indeed ever
dreamed of beholding. It was a strange, sweet crimson which flowed over
her face, and seemed to give a wondrous deepness to her lovely orbs. She
rose as a queen might have risen had a king come to her, but never had
there been such pulsing softness in her look before. 'Twas in some
curious fashion like the look of a girl; and, in sooth, she was but a
girl in years, but so different to all others of her age, and had lived
so singular a life, that no one ever thought of her but as a woman, or
would have deemed it aught but folly to credit her with any tender
emotion or blushing warmth girlhood might be allowed.

His Grace was as courtly of bearing as he had ever been. He stayed not