bared to the eyes of scores of adorers, but rich lace was to set their
beauties forth, and strings of pearls. Why Sir Jeoffry had not sold his
lady's jewels before he became enamoured of her six-year-old child it
would be hard to explain. There was a great painted fan with jewels in
the sticks, and on the floor--as if peeping forth from beneath the
bravery of the expanded petticoats--was a pair of blue and silver shoes,
high-heeled and arched and slender. In gazing at them Mistress Anne lost
her breath, thinking that in some fashion they had a regal air of being
made to trample hearts beneath them.

To the gentle, hapless virgin, to whom such possessions were as the
wardrobe of a queen, the temptation to behold them near was too great.
She could not forbear from passing the threshold, and she did with
heaving breast. She approached the bed and gazed; she dared to touch the
scented gloves that lay by the outspread petticoat of blue and silver;
she even laid a trembling finger upon the pointed bodice, which was so
slender that it seemed small enough for even a child.

"Ah me," she sighed gently, "how beautiful she will be! How beautiful!
And all of them will fall at her feet, as is not to be wondered at. And
it was always so all her life, even when she was an infant, and all gave
her her will because of her beauty and her power. She hath a great
power. Barbara and I are not so. We are dull and weak, and dare not
speak our minds. It is as if we were creatures of another world; but He
who rules all things has so willed it for us. He has given it to us for
our portion--our portion."

Her dull, poor face dropped a little as she spoke the words, and her eyes
fell upon the beauteous tiny shoes, which seemed to trample even when no
foot was within them. She stooped to take one in her hand, but as she