far and wide, the brow of the princess was
slightly clouded, and her sharp eye rested with a fixed and watchful
gaze on Thomas Seymour.

She had noticed the impassioned look which he had now and then fastened
on the queen. The slight, scarcely perceptible tremor of his voice, when
he spoke, had not escaped her.

Princess Elizabeth was jealous; she felt the first torturing motions of
that horrible disease which she had inherited from her father, and in
the feverish paroxysms of which the king had sent two of his wives to
the scaffold.

She was jealous, but not of the queen; much more, she dreamed not that
the queen might share and return Seymour's love. It never came into
her mind to accuse the queen of an understanding with the earl. She
was jealous only of the looks which he directed toward the queen; and
because she was watching those looks, she could not at the same time
read the eyes of her young stepmother also; she could not see the gentle
flames which, kindled by the fire of his looks, glowed in hers.

Thomas Seymour had seen them, and had he now been alone with Catharine,
he would have thrown himself at her feet and confided to her all the
deep and dangerous secrets that he had so long harbored in his breast;
he would have left to her the choice of bringing him to the block, or of
accepting the love which he consecrated to her.

But there, behind them, were the spying, all-observing, all-surmising
courtiers; there was the Princess Elizabeth, who, had he ventured to
speak to the queen, would have conjectured from his manner the words
which she could not understand; for love sees so clearly, and jealousy
has such keen ears!

Catharine suspected nothing of the thoughts of her companions. She alone
was happy; she alone gave herself up with full soul to the enjoyment of
the moment. She drew in with intense delight the pure air; she drank in
the odor of the meadow blossoms; she listened with thirsty ear to the
murmuring song which the wind wafted to her from the boughs of the
trees. Her wishes extended not beyond the hour; she rested in the full
enjoyment of the presence of her beloved. He was there--what needed she
more to make her happy?

Her wishes extended not beyond this hour. She was only conscious how
delightful it was thus to be at her beloved's side, to breathe the same
air, to see the same sun, the same flowers on which his eyes rested, and
on which their glances at least might meet in kisses which