after bowing assent to the queen, she said, "Do you not also recall,
fair demoiselle, our meeting, when children long years ago?"

"Well, noble dame," [The title of dame was at that time applied
indiscriminately to ladies whether married or single, if of high
birth.] answered Sibyll. And as Anne turned, with her air of modest
gentleness, yet of lofty birth and breeding, to explain to the queen
that she had met Sibyll in earlier years, the king approached to
monopolize his guest's voice and ear. It seemed natural to all
present that Edward should devote peculiar attention to the daughter
of Warwick and the sister of the Duchess of Clarence; and even
Elizabeth suspected no guiltier gallantry in the subdued voice, the
caressing manner, which her handsome lord adopted throughout that day,
even to the close of the nightly revel, towards a demoiselle too high
(it might well appear) for licentious homage.

But Anne herself, though too guileless to suspect the nature of
Edward's courtesy, yet shrank from it in vague terror. All his
beauty, all his fascination, could not root from her mind the
remembrance of the exiled prince; nay, the brilliancy of his qualities
made her the more averse to him. It darkened the prospects of Edward
of Lancaster that Edward of York should wear so gracious and so
popular a form. She hailed with delight the hour when she was
conducted to her chamber, and dismissing gently the pompous retinue
allotted to her, found herself alone with the young maiden whom she
had elected to her special service.

"And you remember me, too, fair Sibyll?" said Anne, with her dulcet
and endearing voice.