e patron
of literature and art; men of genius were not kept waiting in his
antechamber, but were received by him with courtesy and honour. At the
Court 'twas well known there was no man who stood so near the throne in
favour, and that there was no union so exalted that he might not have
made his suit as rather that of a superior than an equal. The Queen both
loved and honoured him, and condescended to avow as much with gracious
frankness. She knew no other man, she deigned to say, who was so worthy
of honour and affection, and that he had not married must be because
there was no woman who could meet him on ground that was equal. If there
were no scandals about him--and there were none--'twas not because he was
cold of heart or imagination. No man or woman could look into his deep
eye and not know that when love came to him 'twould be a burning passion,
and an evil fate if it went ill instead of happily.

"Being past his callow, youthful days, 'tis time he made some woman a
duchess," Dunstanwolde said reflectively once to his wife. "'Twould be
more fitting that he should; and it is his way to honour his house in all
things, and bear himself without fault as the head of it. Methinks it
strange he makes no move to do it."

"No, 'tis not strange," said my lady, looking under her black-fringed
lids at the glow of the fire, as though reflecting also. "There is no
strangeness in it."

"Why not?" her lord asked.

"There is no mate for him," she answered slowly. "A man like him must
mate as well as marry, or he will break his heart with silent raging at
the weakness of the thing he is tied to. He is too strong and splendid
for a common woman. If he married one, 'twould be as if a lion had taken
to himself for mate a jackal or a sheep. Ah!" with a long drawn
breath--"he would go mad--mad with misery;" and her hands, which lay upon
her knee, wrung themselves hard together, though none could see it.

"He should have a goddess, were they not so rare," said Dunstanwolde,
gently smiling. "He should hold a bitter grudge against me, that I, his
unworthy kinsman, have been given the only one."

"Yes, he should have a goddess," said my lady slowly again; "and there
are but women, naught but women."

"You have marked him well," said her lord, admiring her wisdom. "Methinks
that you--though you have spoken to him but little, and have but of late
become his kinswoman--have marked and read him better than the rest of
us.