lossoms of the peach that flaunted their
beauty at some distance. She appeared to be arranging violets--that
still sparkled with rain--in an oblong porcelain box that lay flat
upon the casement. Her white jewelled fingers flitted in and out of
the blue depths. Her small white teeth were but half eclipsed and
there fluttered forth from her parted lips a low humming that keyed
and blended with the organ. Her soft white dress enveloped her mould
loosely; her long flowing sleeves, prefaced by rare lace, displaying
her pink, round arm. She wore not the look of care; for she had thrown
all such evil weight upon one who played in yonder sacred shrine
so tranquilly, as if nothing but his own sins rested--and they but
feather-weight--upon his soul. On he played, and she arranged her
flowers, and up the avenue came horses' feet and Lady Constance
unattended came riding near the castle and called up to the vision of
beauty that leant from the window,--

"'Tis a glorious morning for riding forth. I have had a fine jaunt and
met nothing but the post-boy,"--and here she showed a billet and rode
close to the wall and hid it neath the ivy--"and a famous adventure
which I've half a mind to pursue, after--I've 'suaged my hunger. If I
ride thus every morning, I shall soon have an arm as pink and round
and perfect in mould as thine own. Hast thou broken fast?"

"I have had my simple allotment, and have been down on the lower
terraces and gathered these violets, and am now hungry again and
Janet has gone for a wing of fowl and some wine." At these words Lady
Constance looked about her cautiously and spoke in low tones,--

"Everything is ready for thy flight. I saw Adrian this morning. He is
handsomer than ever and eager to see thee, and counts the hours 'til
nightfall. If 'tis possible thou art to escape unnoticed to the
monastery, where the nuptials will be performed at once, then thou art
to depart immediately for Whitehall, where thou wilt be made much of
by the King and he will more like detain thy husband under pretext,
and mayhap offer him some honour for the sake of keeping thy beauty
in England."--With a wave of the hand Mistress Penwick bade Lady
Constance depart as Janet stood within the door.

The castle was astir early, as if there was naught but a glorious day
before them, and they would make it of much length. It seemed as if a
great peace had settled upon those ivy-clad walls, or it might be the
calm that is the solemn pr