little felt.

It had been perhaps a year since my adventure with Mary, and I had
taken all that time trying to convince Jane that I did not mean a word
I had said to her mistress, and that I was very earnest in everything
I said to her. But Jane's ears would have heard just as much had they
been the pair of beautiful little shells they so much resembled. This
troubled me a great deal, and the best I could hope was that she held
me on probation.

On the evening of the day Mary came home to Greenwich, Brandon asked:
"Who and what on earth is this wonderful Mary I hear so much about?
They say she is coming home to-day, and the court seems to have gone
mad about it; I hear nothing but 'Mary is coming! Mary is coming!
Mary! Mary!' from morning until night. They say Buckingham is beside
himself for love of her. He has a wife at home, if I am right, and is
old enough to be her father. Is he not?" I assented; and Brandon
continued: "A man who will make such a fool of himself about a woman
is woefully weak. The men of the court must be poor creatures."

He had much to learn about the power of womanhood. There is nothing
on earth--but you know as much about it as I do.

"Wait until you see her," I answered, "and you will be one of them,
also. I flatter you by giving you one hour with her to be heels over
head in love. With an ordinary man it takes one-sixtieth of that time;
so you see I pay a compliment to your strength of mind."

"Nonsense!" broke in Brandon. "Do you think I left all my wits down in
Suffolk? Why, man, she is the sister of the king, and is sought by