dly talk between them
of things which both held dear and in which their hopes for the quieting
of the kingdom had a large share. She was flushed and eager beyond her
wont, when they first came in sight of the distant city of Nikosia, and
he laid his hand upon her bridle and lowered his voice. "Let us not
hasten," he said entreatingly; "the journey hath been so beautiful; and
our bourne is all too near."

"Nay--not too near--for Her Majesty may well be weary."

"The Dama Margherita hath ever a thought for others," he answered her.
"_And for me?_--will she not grant me to reach the bourne I covet?"

"How may I help to that of which I know nothing?" she asked
inadvertently, her thoughts being full of the problems they had
discussed touching the Queen: then suddenly lifting her eyes and meeting
his, she turned her head away in confusion.

"Then I will make confession----" he began eagerly.

"Nay; I am no priest," she answered, touching her horse with her whip.

He followed, disconcerted; but she, repenting, soon quieted her pace and
turned her face to him again, serene as of wont.

"I would fain tell thee my secret, Margherita," he pleaded.

She lacked the courage to reprove him while he lingered on her name with
an accent that turned it to music.

"Nay--if it be a secret, tell it not: for women have tongues."

"Have they also hearts?" he asked.

"Not those who yield them," she said; "but only those who hold them
fast."

"_Is_ my secret a secret, Margherita?"

"Your Excellency--a member of the Council of the Realm hath so reported
it," she answered, laughing frankly. "Who am I, that I should question
his judgment?"

"Thou art thyself," he said half banteringly--half seriously, and
watching to see how she would take it. "To none other would I so defer."

"Not to the Queen?" she asked, still playfully.

But he was serious at once. "Aye--ever to the Queen, in duty bound--by
kinsman's ties--by knighthood's vows--by my honor, by her sorrows, and
by my will--yet this hindereth not that there should be one----"

"Methinks my stirrup is caught fast in the housing!" she interrupted
with an exclamation of dismay: and there was naught to do for the
Bernardini but to dismount and readjust it,--she--talking brightly the
while, of many things for which at that moment he cared naught; and
less, because it was she who spoke.

But when they were riding side by side again, and the city was coming
nearer, he would not be