ruff or frill encircling her throat, and terminating a lace tucker
within her low-cut boddice. Rich necklaces, the jewel of the Garter,
and a whole constellation of brilliants, decorated her bosom, and the
boddice of her blue satin dress and its sleeves were laced with seed
pearls. The waist, a very slender one, was encircled with a gold
cord and heavy tassels, the farthingale spread out its magnificent
proportions, and a richly embroidered white satin petticoat showed
itself in front, but did not conceal the active, well-shaped feet.
There was something extraordinarily majestic in her whole bearing,
especially the poise of her head, which made the spectator never
perceive how small her stature actually was. Her face and
complexion, too, were of the cast on which time is slow to make an
impression, being always pale and fair, with keen and delicately-cut
features; so that her admirers had quite as much reason to be dazzled
as when she was half her present age; nay, perhaps more, for the
habit of command had added to the regality which really was her
principal beauty. Sir Christopher Hatton, with a handsome but very
small face at the top of a very tall and portly frame, dressed in the
extreme of foppery, came behind her, and then a bevy of ladies and
gentlemen.

As the Talbots approached, she was moving slowly on, unusually erect
even for her, and her face composed to severe majesty, like that of a
judge, the tawny eyes with a strange gleam in them fixed on some one
in the throng on the grass near at hand. Lord Talbot advanced with a
bow so low that he swept the ground with his plume, and while the two
youths followed his example, Diccon's quick eye noted that she
glanced for one rapid second at their weapons, then continued her
steady gaze, never withdrawing it even to receive Lord Talbot's
salutation as he knelt before her, though she said, "We greet you