ght be obtained, he said, by tearing up the Pope's bull of
dispensation that permitted the marriage. Yet, madame, although Lord
Murray would himself go no further, I have no cause to doubt that were
other means concerted, he would be content to look through his fingers."

Her mind, however, did not seem to follow his speech beyond the matter
of the divorce. A faint flush of eagerness stirred in her pale cheeks.

"Ah, yes!" she cried. "I, too, have thought of that--of this divorce.
And God knows I do not want for grounds. And it could be obtained, you
say, by tearing up this papal bull?"

"The marriage could be proclaimed void thereafter," Argyll explained.

She looked past Bothwell into the fire, and took her chin in her hand.

"Yes," she said slowly, musingly, and again, "yes. That were a way. That
is the way." And then suddenly she looked up, and they saw doubt and
dread in her eyes. "But in that case--what of my son?"

"Aye!" said Lethington grimly. He shrugged his narrow shoulders, parted
his hands, and brought them together again. "That's the obstacle, as we
perceived. It would imperil his succession."

"It would make a bastard of him, you mean?" she cried, demanding the
full expansion of their thoughts.

"Indeed it would do no less," the secretary assented.

"So that," said Bothwell, softly, "we come back to Alexander's method.
What the fingers may not unravel, the knife can sever."

She shivered, and drew her furred cloak the more closely about her.

Lethington leaned forward. He spoke in kindly, soothing accents.

"Let us guide this matter among us, madame," he murmured, "and we'll
find means to rid Your Grace of this young fool, without hurt to your
honour or prejudice to your son. And the Earl of Murray will look the
other way, provided you pardon Morton and his friends for the killing
they did in Darnley's service."

She looked from one to the other of them, scanning each face in turn.
Then her eyes returned to a contemplation of the flaming logs, and she
spoke very softly.

"Do nothing by which a spot might be laid on my honour or conscience,"
she said, with an odd deliberateness that seemed to insist upon the
strictly literal meaning of her words. "Rather I pray you let the matter
rest until God remedy it."

Lethington looked at the other two, the other two looked at him. He
rubbed his hands softly.

"Trust to us, madame," he answered. "We will so guide the matter
that Your Grace shall see