"Surely, yes," said Anne, simply. "Was not Richard as a brother to us
when we played as children on yon greensward?"

"Never as a brother to me,--never was Richard of Gloucester one whom I
could think of without fear and even loathing," answered Isabel,
quickly.

It was at this turn in the conversation that the noiseless step of
Richard himself neared the spot, and hearing his own name thus
discourteously treated, he paused, screened from their eyes by the
bastion in the angle.

"Nay, nay, sister," said Anne; "what is there in Richard that
misbeseems his princely birth?"

"I know not, but there is no youth in his eye and in his heart. Even
as a child he had the hard will and the cold craft of gray hairs.
Pray Saint Mary you give me not Gloucester for a brother!"

Anne sighed and smiled. "Ah, no," she said, after a short pause,
"when thou art Princess of Clarence may I--"

"May thou what?"

"Pray for thee and thine in the house of God! Ah, thou knowest not,
sweet Isabel, how often at morn and even mine eyes and heart turn to
the spires of yonder convent!" She rose as she said this, her lip
quivered, and she moved on in the opposite direction to that in which
Richard stood, still unseen, and no longer within his hearing. Isabel
rose also, and hastening after her, threw her arms round Anne's neck,