pillory, mounted it, called
to her the drummer, and ordered him to summon to the square by tuck of
drum every man in the place. Which done, and the amazed population
at hand, gaping at the spectacle of the wife of their commander (then
absent from home) pilloried before them, she gave command, through
the crier, that they should take their fill of gazing, whispering, and
nudging then and there, forever and a day, and then should go about
their business and give her leave to mind her own.

That day was gone, but men still dropped their work to see a woman pass,
still cheered when a farthingale appeared over a ship's side, and at
church still devoted their eyes to other service than staring at the
minister. In our short but crowded history few things had made a greater
stir than the coming in of Sir Edwyn's maids. They were married now,
but they were still the observed of all observers; to be pointed out to
strangers, run after by children, gaped at by the vulgar, bowed to with
broad smiles by Burgess, Councilor, and commander, and openly contemned
by those dames who had attained to a husband in somewhat more regular
fashion. Of the ninety who had arrived two weeks before, the greater
number had found husbands in the town itself or in the neighboring
hundreds, so that in the crowd that had gathered to withstand the
Spaniard, and had stayed to welcome the King's favorite, there were
farthingales not a few.

But there were none like the woman whose hand I had kissed in the
courting meadow. In the throng, that day, in her Puritan dress and amid
the crowd of meaner beauties, she had passed without overmuch comment,
and since that day none had seen her save Rolfe and the minister, my
servants and myself; and when "The Spaniard!" was cried, men thought of
other things than the beauty of women; so that until this moment she
had escaped any special notice. Now all that was changed. The Governor,
following the pointing of those insolent eyes, fixed his own upon her
in a stare of sheer amazement; the gold-laced quality about him craned
necks, lifted eyebrows, and whispered; and the rabble behind followed
their betters' example with an emphasis quite their own.

"Where do you suppose that jewel went, Sir Governor," said the
favorite,--"that jewel which was overnice to shine at court, which set
up its will against the King's, which would have none of that one to
whom it had been given?"

"I am a plain man, my lord," replied the