to care whither she went, nor when she came home. Mistress de Chavasse
talked from time to time about Sue's infatuation for the mysterious
foreign adventurer, but always as if this were a thing of the past, and
from which Sue herself had long since recovered.

Thus there was no one to say her nay, when she went out into the garden
after evening repast, and stayed there until the shades of night had
long since wrapped the old trees in gloom.

And strangely enough this sense of freedom struck her with a chill sense
of loneliness. She would have loved to suddenly catch sight of Lambert's
watchful figure, and to hear his somewhat harsh voice, warning her
against the foreigner.

This had been wont to irritate her twelve weeks ago. How mysteriously
everything had altered round her!

And yearning for her friend, she wondered what had become of him. The
last she had heard was toward the middle of October when Sir Marmaduke,
home from one of his frequent journeyings, one day said that Lambert had
been released after ten weeks spent in prison, but that he could not say
whither he had gone since then.

All Sue's questionings anent the young man only brought forth violent
vituperations from Sir Marmaduke, and cold words of condemnation from
Mistress de Chavasse; therefore, she soon desisted, storing up in her
heart pathetic memories of the one true friend she had in the world.

She saw without much excitement, and certainly without tremor, the rapid
advance of that date early in November when she would perforce have to
leave Acol Court in order to follow her husband whithersoever he chose
to command her.

The last time that they had met there had been a good deal of talk
between them, about her fortune and its future disposal. He declared
himself ready to administer it all himself, as he professed a distrust
of those who had watched over it so far--Master Skyffington, the lawyer,
and Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse, both under the control of the Court of
Chancery.

She explained to him that the bulk of her wealth consisted of
obligations and shares in the Levant and Russian Companies, her mother
having been the only daughter and heiress of Peter Ford the great
Levantine and Oriental merchant; her marriage with the proud Earl of
Dover having caused no small measure of comment in Court circles in
those days.

There were also deeds of property owned in Holland, grants of monopolies
for trading given by Ivan the Terrible to her gr