."

"I shall never regret it, Malcolm," she answered softly, as she held out
her hand to me.

Then we rode by the dove-cote, out from Haddon Hall, never to see its
walls again.

We went to Rutland, whence after a fortnight we journeyed to France. There
I received my mother's estates, and never for one moment, to my knowledge,
has Madge regretted having intrusted her life and happiness to me. I need
not speak for myself.

Our home is among the warm, sunlit, vine-covered hills of southern France,
and we care not for the joys of golden streets so long as God in His
goodness vouchsafes to us our earthly paradise. Age, with the heart at
peace, is the fairest season of life; and love, leavened of God, robs even
approaching death of his sting and makes for us a broad flower-strewn path
from the tempestuous sea of time to the calm, sweet ocean of eternity.

CHAPTER XVI

LEICESTER WAITS AT THE STILE

I shall now tell you of the happenings in Haddon Hall during the fortnight
we spent at Rutland before our departure for France.

We left Dorothy, you will remember, a prisoner in her rooms.

After John had gone Sir George's wrath began to gather, and Dorothy was
not permitted to depart from the Hall for even a walk upon the terrace,
nor could she leave her own apartments save when the queen requested her
presence.

A few days after my departure from Haddon, Sir George sent Dawson out
through the adjoining country to invite the nobility and gentry to a grand
ball to be given at the Hall in honor of Queen Elizabeth. Queen Mary had
been sent a prisoner to Chatsworth.

Tom Shaw, the most famous piper of his times, and a choice company of
musicians to play with him were hired for the occasion, and, in short, the
event was so glorious that its wonders have been sung in minstrelsy
throughout Derbyshire ever since.

Dorothy's imprisonment saddened Leicester's heart, and he longed to see
her, for her beauty had touched him nearly. Accordingly, the earl one day
intimated to Sir George his wish in terms that almost bespoke an intention
to ask for the girl's hand when upon proper opportunity the queen's
consent might be sought and perchance obtained. His equivocal words did
not induce Sir George to grant a meeting by which Dorothy might be
compromised; but a robust hope for the ultimate accomplishment of the
"Leicester possibility" was aroused in the breast of the King of the Peak,
and from hope he could, and soon did, ea