t women of all ages played with, enjoyed, or lost themselves for
it--it was with her as if a nun had been withdrawn from her cloister and
plunged into the vortex of the world.

"Sister," she said, looking at the Beauty with humble, adoring eyes, "you
make me feel that my romances are true. You tell such things. It is
like seeing pictures of things to hear you talk. No wonder that all
listen to you, for indeed 'tis wonderful the way you have with words. You
use them so that 'tis as though they had shapes of their own and colours,
and you builded with them. I thank you for being so gracious to me, who
have seen so little, and cannot tell the poor, quiet things I have seen."

And being led into the loving boldness by her gratitude, she bent forward
and touched with her lips the fair hand resting on the chair's arm.

Mistress Clorinda fixed her fine eyes upon her in a new way.

"I' faith, it doth not seem fair, Anne," she said. "I should not like to
change lives with thee. Thou hast eyes like a shot pheasant--soft, and
with the bright hid beneath the dull. Some man might love them, even if
thou art no beauty. Stay," suddenly; "methinks--"

She uprose from her chair and went to the oaken wardrobe, and threw the
door of it open wide while she looked within.

"There is a gown and tippet or so here, and a hood and some ribands I
might do without," she said. "My woman shall bear them to your chamber,
and show you how to set them to rights. She is a nimble-fingered
creature, and a gown of mine would give almost stuff enough to make you
two. Then some days, when I am not going abroad and Mistress Margery
frets me too much, I will send for you to sit with me, and you shall
listen to the gossip when a visitor drops in to have a dish of tea."

Anne would have kissed her feet then, if she had dared to do so. She
blushed red all over, and adored her with a more worshipping gaze than
before.

"I should not have dared to hope so much," she stammered. "I could
not--perhaps it is not fitting--perhaps I could not bear myself as I
should. I would try to show myself a gentlewoman and seemly. I--I _am_
a gentlewoman, though I have learned so little. I could not be aught but
a gentlewoman, could I, sister, being of your own blood and my parents'
child?" half afraid to presume even this much.

"No," said Clorinda. "Do not be a fool, Anne, and carry yourself too
humbly before the world. You can be as humble as you like