And being led into the loving boldness by her gratitude, she bent forward
and touched with her lips the fair hand resting on the chair's arm.

Mistress Clorinda fixed her fine eyes upon her in a new way.

"I' faith, it doth not seem fair, Anne," she said. "I should not like to
change lives with thee. Thou hast eyes like a shot pheasant--soft, and
with the bright hid beneath the dull. Some man might love them, even if
thou art no beauty. Stay," suddenly; "methinks--"

She uprose from her chair and went to the oaken wardrobe, and threw the
door of it open wide while she looked within.

"There is a gown and tippet or so here, and a hood and some ribands I
might do without," she said. "My woman shall bear them to your chamber,
and show you how to set them to rights. She is a nimble-fingered
creature, and a gown of mine would give almost stuff enough to make you
two. Then some days, when I am not going abroad and Mistress Margery
frets me too much, I will send for you to sit with me, and you shall
listen to the gossip when a visitor drops in to have a dish of tea."

Anne would have kissed her feet then, if she had dared to do so. She
blushed red all over, and adored her with a more worshipping gaze than
before.

"I should not have dared to hope so much," she stammered. "I could
not--perhaps it is not fitting--perhaps I could not bear myself as I
should. I would try to show myself a gentlewoman and seemly. I--I _am_
a gentlewoman, though I have learned so little. I could not be aught but
a gentlewoman, could I, sister, being of your own blood and my parents'