had she that the Queen wanted her lover? And if she spoke, the
impertinence of the suggestion might send back to the fierce Medici that
same lover, to lose his head.

Leicester, who now was playing the game as though it were a hazard for
states and kingdoms, read the increasing trouble in her face; and waited
confidently for the moment when in desperation she would lose her self-
control and go to the Queen.

But he did not reckon with the depth of the girl's nature and her true
sense of life. Her brain told her that what she was tempted to do she
should not; that her only way was to wait; to trust that the Queen of
England was as much true woman as Queen, and as much Queen as true woman;
and that the one was held in high equipoise by the other. Besides,
Trinity Day would bring the end of it all, and that was not far off. She
steeled her will to wait till then, no matter how dark the sky might be.

As time went on, Leicester became impatient. He had not been able to
induce M. Aubert to compel Angele to accept a quiet refuge at Kenilworth;
he saw that this plan would not work, and he deployed his mind upon
another. If he could but get Angele to seek De la Foret in his apartment
in the palace, and then bring the matter to Elizabeth's knowledge with
sure proof, De la Foret's doom would be sealed. At great expense,
however; for, in order to make the scheme effective, Angele should visit
De la Foret at night. This would mean the ruin of the girl as well.
Still that could be set right; because, once De la Foret was sent to the
Medici the girl's character could be cleared; and, if not, so much the
surer would she come at last to his protection. What he had professed in
cold deliberation had become in some sense a fact. She had roused in him
an eager passion. He might even dare, when De la Foret was gone, to