m. We will, therefore, recognize him as a great poet.
But with what shall I reward him?"

"Give him a rose that you wear in your bosom--a rosette that is fastened
to your dress and shows your colors."

"But alas, Jane, to-day I wear neither a rose nor a rosette."

"Yet you can wear one, queen. A rosette is, indeed, wanting here on your
shoulder. Your purple mantle is too negligently fastened. We must put
some trimming here."

She went hastily into the next room and returned with the box in which
were kept the queen's ribbons embroidered with gold, and bows adorned
with jewels.

Lady Jane searched and selected, here and there, a long time. Then she
took the crimson velvet rosette, which she herself had previously thrown
into the box, and showed it to the queen.

"See, it is at the same time tasteful and rich, for a diamond clasp
confines it in the middle. Will you allow me to fasten this rosette on
your shoulder, and will you give it to the Earl of Surrey?"

"Yes, Jane, I will give it to him, because you wish it. But, poor Jane,
what do, you gain by my doing it?"

"At any rate, a friendly smile, queen."

"And is that enough for you? Do you love him so much, then?"

"Yes, I love him!" said Jane Douglas, with a sigh of pain, as she
fastened the rosette on the queen's shoulder.

"And now, Jane, go and announce to the master of ceremonies that I am
ready, as soon as the king wishes it, to resort to the gallery." Lady
Jane turned to leave the chamber. But, already upon the threshold, she
returned once more.

"Forgive me, queen, for venturing to make one more request of you. You
have, however, just shown yourself too much the noble and true friend of
earlier days for me not to venture one more request."

"Now, what is it, poor Jane?"

"I have intrusted my secret not to the queen, but to Catharine Parr, the
friend of my youth. Will she keep it, and betray to none my disgrace and
humiliation?"

"My word for that, Jane. Nobody but God and ourselves shall ever know
what we have spoken."

Lady Jane humbly kissed her hand and murmured a few words of thanks;
then she left the queen's room to go in quest of the master of
ceremonies.

In the queen's anteroom she stopped a moment, and leaned against the
wall, exhausted, and as it were crushed. Nobody was here who could
observe and listen to her. She had no need to smile, no need to conceal,
beneath a calm and equable appearance, all those tempestuous and
despairin