jealousy.

This, however, proved an insurmountable obstacle; for the
countess, hearing rumours of the pleasures which were enjoyed at
my Lord Bristol's table, insisted on attending the king thither,
and soon gave his gracious majesty an intimation he dared not
disregard--that she would not suffer Miss Brooke as a rival.
Margaret Brooke was grievously disappointed; but the Duke of York
beginning his attentions at the point where his majesty
discontinued them, she was soon consoled for loss of the
monarch's affection by the ardour of his brother's love. But a
short time after, probably foreseeing the ambiguous position in
which she stood, she forsook her lover, and accepted a husband in
the person of Sir John Denham.

This worthy knight was a man of parts; inasmuch as he was a
soldier, a poet, and a gamester. At the time of his marriage he
had passed his fiftieth year; moreover, he limped painfully and
carried a crutch. His appearance, indeed, was far from imposing.
According to Aubrey, he was tall, had long legs, and was
"incurvelting at his shoulders; his hair was but thin and flaxen,
with a moist curl; his gait slow and rather astalking; his eye
was a kind of light goose-grey, not big, but it had a strange
piercingness, not as to shining and glory, but when he conversed
he looked into your very thoughts." His personal defects,
however, were to a great degree compensated for by his great
wealth. Moreover he was surveyor-general of his majesty's works,
had a town house in Scotland Yard, and a country residence at
Waltham Cross in Essex. But there are some deficiencies for
which wealth does not atone, as no doubt Lady Denham promptly