want to talk to you freely where we shall not be overheard."

Betty led the way to her own little parlor on the second floor and placed
a chair for her guest near a window opening on the court. Frances sat
down and asked Betty, who evidently intended to remain standing, to bring
a chair and sit beside her.

"I would not think of sitting in your Grace's presence," answered Betty,
courtesying respectfully.

"Sit down, Betty, please, and let us be friends," said Frances,
coaxingly. "I am not a duchess. I am only a girl like yourself. My name
is Mistress Jennings--Frances. Nelly Gwynn was jesting when she spoke of
me as a duchess, and only wanted to tease you when she objected to the
table linen. She is good and kind--no one can be more so."

"Yes," returned Betty. "She came back and said that the linen was
beautiful and offered me money for myself, but I refused. You see I
am not--well, I am not a servant. But afterward she gave me a hundred
jacobusses for the poor, and I thanked her. I am very sorry that I was
angry the day of the fight, but you know the great persons who come here
from Whitehall are very irritating, and treat us all with contempt."

"I am not a great lady, Betty, though I live at court. I am poor and very
far from happy. I am not so good as you, Betty, I'm sure, though I do the
best I can not to be bad."

"Oh, you are too beautiful not to be good," returned Betty, warming up to
my cousin.

"Whether I am beautiful or not I care little, for I am in great trouble
and have come to you for help," said Frances. "My cousin, Baron Clyde,
who is as dear to me as a brother, is full of your praises, and only the
other day said that there was no woman or girl in England purer or better
than you, and that he knew none in the world whom he deemed more
beautiful."

The red came to Betty's cheeks, and she answered, smiling and dimpling:
"Ah, did he say that of me? I deem him my very good friend indeed. Is he
really your cousin?"

"Yes, he is more a brother than a cousin," returned Frances.

Immediately Betty softened and, drawing a chair close to Frances's side,
sat down. After a long pause, she murmured: "Then if I may, I, too, would
be your friend."

"I knew you would," answered Frances. "Now give me your hand, so that we
may feel as well as see and hear each other. Ah, Betty, how soft and warm
your hand is. I don't wonder that my cousin praises you. You have won me
already, and I hope we may always be