ut what audacity
to be so much at her ease, when Lucy would have sunk into the earth with
shame.' His bow had saved him the necessity of answering in words, and
the lady continued:

'And Madame _votre mere_. Is she well? She was very good to me.'

Berenger did not think that kindness to Eustacie had been her
chief perfection, but he answered that she was well and sent her
commendations, which the young lady acknowledged by a magnificent
curtsey. 'And as beautiful as ever?' she asked.

'Quite as beautiful,' he said, 'only somewhat more _embonpoint_.'

'Ah!' she said, smiling graciously, and raising her splendid eyes to
his face, 'I understand better what that famous beauty was now, and the
fairness that caused her to be called the Swan.'

It was so personal that the colour rushed again into his cheek. No one
had ever so presumed to admire him; and with a degree gratified and
surprised, and sensible more and more of the extreme beauty of the lady,
there was a sort of alarm about him as if this were the very fascination
he had been warned against, and as if she were casting a net about him,
which, wife as she was, it would be impossible to him to break.

'Nay, Monsieur,' she laughed, 'is a word from one so near too much for
your modesty? Is it possible that no one has yet told you of your good
mien? Or do they not appreciate Greek noses and blue eyes in the land of
fat Englishmen? How have you ever lived _en province?_ Our princes are
ready to hang themselves at the thought of being in such banishment,
even at court--indeed, Monsieur has contrived to transfer the noose to
M. d'Alengon. Have you been at court, cousin?'

'I have been presented to the Queen.'

She then proceeded to ask questions about the chief personages with a
rapid intelligence that surprised him as well as alarmed him, for he
felt more and more in the power of a very clever as well as beautiful
woman, and the attraction she exercised made him long the more to
escape; but she smiled and signed away several cavaliers who would have
gained her attention. She spoke of Queen Mary of Scotland, then in the
fifth years of her captivity, and asked if he did not feel bound to her
service by having been once her partner. Did not he remember that dance?

'I have heard my mother speak of it far too often to forget it,' said
Berenger, glowing again for her who could speak of that occasion without
a blush.

'You wish to gloss over your first inconstancy, sir,