ing. He was conversing with the Earl of Kent, the bridegroom of
Alesia, concerning the merits of certain hawks recently purchased; and
near him, at her embroidery-frame, sat the Countess Alianora.

Philippa knelt first to her.

"Farewell, Philippa!" said the Countess, in a rather kinder tone than
usual. "The saints be with thee."

Then she turned to the only relative she had.

Earl Richard just permitted his jewelled fingers to touch Philippa's
velvet hood, saying carelessly,--"Our Lady keep thee!--I cry you mercy,
fair son; the lesser tercel is far stronger on the wing."

As Philippa rose, Sir Richard Sergeaux took her hand and led her away.
So she mounted her palfrey, and rode away from Arundel Castle. There
were only two things she was sorry to leave--Agnes, because she might
have told her more about her mother,--and the grave, in the Priory
churchyard below, of the baby Lady Alianora--the little sister who never
grew up to tyrannise over her.

It was a long journey ere they reached Kilquyt Manor, and Philippa had
time to make the acquaintance of her new owner. He was about her own
age, and so far as she could at first judge, a reasonably good-tempered
man. The first discovery she made was that he was rather proud of her.
Of Philippa the daughter of Arundel, of course, not of Philippa the
woman: but it was so new to be reckoned anything or anybody--so strange
to think that somebody was proud of her--that Philippa enjoyed the
knowledge. As to his loving her, or her loving him, these were ideas
that never entered the minds of either.

So at first Philippa found her married life a pleasant change. She was
now at the head, instead of being under the feet of every one else; and
her experience of Sir Richard gave her the impression at the outset that
he would not prove a hard master. Nor did he, strictly speaking; but on
further acquaintance he proved a very trying one. His temper was not of
the stormy kind that reigned at Arundel, which had hitherto been
Philippa's only idea of a bad temper: but he was a perpetual grumbler,
and the slightest temporary discomfort or vexation would overcast her
sky with conjugal clouds for the rest of the day. The least stone in
his path was treated as a gigantic mountain; the narrowest brooklet as
an unfathomable sea. And gradually--she scarcely knew how or when--the
old weary discomfort crept back over Philippa's heart, the old
unsatisfied longing for the love that no on