sed and fed and paid your dues," she said to them;
"but the first man or woman who does a task ill or dishonestly will be
turned from his place that hour. I deal justice--not mercy."

"Such a mistress they have never had before," said my lord when she
related this to him. "Nay, they have never dreamed of such a lady--one
who can be at once so severe and so kind. But there is none other such,
my dearest one. They will fear and worship you."

She gave him one of her sweet, splendid smiles. It was the sweetness she
at rare times gave her splendid smile which was her marvellous power.

"I would not be too grand a lady to be a good housewife," she said. "I
may not order your dinners, my dear lord, or sweep your corridors, but
they shall know I rule your household and would rule it well."

"You are a goddess!" he cried, kneeling to her, enraptured. "And you
have given yourself to a poor mortal man, who can but worship you."

"You give me all I have," she said, "and you love me nobly, and I am
grateful."

Her assemblies were the most brilliant in the town, and the most to be
desired entrance to. Wits and beauties planned and intrigued that they
might be bidden to her house; beaux and fine ladies fell into the spleen
if she neglected them. Her lord's kinsman the Duke of Osmonde, who had
been present when she first knelt to Royalty, had scarce removed his eyes
from her so long as he could gaze. He went to Dunstanwolde afterwards
and congratulated him with stately courtesy upon his great good fortune
and happiness, speaking almost with fire of her beauty and majesty, and
thanking his kinsman that through him such perfections had been given to
their name and house. From that time, at all special assemblies given by
his kinsman he was present, the observed of all observers. He was a man
of whom 'twas said that he was the most magnificent gentleman in Europe;
that there was none to compare with him in the combination of gifts given
both by Nature and Fortune. His beauty both of feature and carriage was
of the greatest, his mind was of the highest, and his education far
beyond that of the age he lived in. It was not the fashion of the day
that men of his rank should devote themselves to the cultivation of their
intellects instead of to a life of pleasure; but this he had done from
his earliest youth, and now, in his perfect though early maturity, he had
no equal in polished knowledge and charm of bearing. He was th