tempted to provoke my jealous countess, and break a lance for the fame
of the demoiselle whose fair face is married to a noble heart."

That evening, in the galliard, many an admiring eye turned to Sibyll,
and many a young gallant, recalling the earl's words, sighed to win
her grace. There had been a time when such honour and such homage
would have, indeed, been welcome; but now ONE saw them not, and they
were valueless. All that, in her earlier girlhood, Sibyll's ambition
had coveted, when musing on the brilliant world, seemed now well-nigh
fulfilled,--her father protected by the first noble of the land, and
that not with the degrading condescension of the Duchess of Bedford,
but as Power alone should protect Genius, honoured while it honours;
her gentle birth recognized; her position elevated; fair fortunes
smiling after such rude trials; and all won without servility or
abasement. But her ambition having once exhausted itself in a diviner
passion, all excitement seemed poor and spiritless compared to the
lonely waiting at the humble farm for the voice and step of Hastings.
Nay, but for her father's sake, she could almost have loathed the
pleasure and the pomp, and the admiration and the homage, which seemed
to insult the reverses of the wandering exile.

The earl had designed to place Sibyll among Isabel's ladies, but the
haughty air of the duchess chilled the poor girl; and pleading the
excuse that her father's health required her constant attendance, she
prayed permission to rest with Warner wherever he might be lodged.
Adam himself, now that the Duchess of Bedford and Friar Bungey were no
longer in the Tower, entreated permission to return to the place where
he had worked the most successfully upon the beloved Eureka; and, as
the Tower seemed a safer residence than any private home could be,
from popular prejudice and assault, Warwick kindly offered apartments,