ot wish to appear as intimately
interested in the news from the Tower as those who had a better right to
be. He was always detecting now faint shades in her character, as he
knew her better, that charmed and delighted him.

She was doing some mending, and only glanced up and down again without
ceasing or moving, as Ralph stood by her.

"I thought you never used the needle," he began in a moment.

"It is never too late to mend," she said, without the faintest movement.

Ralph felt again an odd prick of happiness. It gave him a distinct
thrill of delight that she would make such an answer and so swiftly; and
at such a time, when tragedy was round her and in her heart, for he knew
how much she loved the man from whom he had just come.

He sat down on the garden chair opposite, and watched her fingers and
the movements of her wrist as she passed the needle in and out, and
neither spoke again till the others had dispersed.

"You heard all I said?" said Ralph at last.

She bowed her head without answering.

"Shall I go and bring you news again presently?"

"If you please," she said.

"I hope to be able to do some little things for him," went on Ralph,
dropping his eyes, and he was conscious that she momentarily looked up.

--"But I am afraid there is not much. I shall speak for him to Master
Cromwell and the Lieutenant."

The needle paused and then went on again.

Ralph was conscious of an extraordinary momentousness in every word that
he said. He was well aware that this girl was not to be wooed by
violence, but that he must insinuate his mind and sympathies delicately
with hers, watching for every movement and ripple of thought. He had
known ever since his talk with Margaret Roper that Beatrice was, as it
were, turned towards him and scrutinising him, and that any mistake on
his part, however slight, might finally alienate her. Even his gestures,
the tones of his voice, his manner of walking, were important elements.
He knew now that he was the kind of person who might be acceptable to
her--or rather that his personality contained one facet that pleased
her, and that he must be careful now to keep that facet turned towards
her continually at such an angle that she caught the flash. He had
sufficient sense, not to act a part, for that, he knew, she would soon
discover, but to be natural in his best way, and to use the fine
instincts that he was aware of possessing to tell him exactly how she
would wish him to