ny fair fight," she said, "I
could have struck back blow for blow--and mine would have been the
heaviest; but being changed into a woman, my arms are taken from me. He
who strikes, aims at my bared breast--and that he knows and triumphs in."

She set her teeth together, and ground them, and the look, which was like
that of a chained and harried tigress, lit itself in her eyes.

"But there is _none_ shall beat me," she said through these fierce shut
teeth. "Nay I there is _none_! Get up, Anne," bending to raise her.
"Get up, or I shall be kneeling too--and I must stand upon my feet."

She made a motion as if she would have turned and gone from the room
without further explanation, but Anne still clung to her. She was afraid
of her again, but her piteous love was stronger than her fear.

"Let me go with you," she cried. "Let me but go and lie in your closet
that I may be near, if you should call."

Clorinda put her hands upon her shoulders, and stooping, kissed her,
which in all their lives she had done but once or twice.

"God bless thee, poor Anne," she said. "I think thou wouldst lie on my
threshold and watch the whole night through, if I should need it; but I
have given way to womanish vapours too much--I must go and be alone. I
was driven by my thoughts to come and sit and look at thy good face--I
did not mean to wake thee. Go back to bed."

She would be obeyed, and led Anne to her couch herself, making her lie
down, and drawing the coverlet about her; after which she stood upright
with a strange smile, laying her hands lightly about her own white
throat.

"When I was a new-born thing and had a little throat and a weak breath,"
she cried, "'twould have been an easy thing to end me. I have been told
I lay beneath my mother when they found her dead. If, when she felt her
breath leaving her, she had laid her hand upon my mouth and stopped mine,
I should not," with the little laugh again--"I should not lie awake to-
night."

And then she went away.

CHAPTER XIV--Containing the history of the breaking of the horse Devil,
and relates the returning of his Grace of Osmonde from France

There were in this strange nature, depths so awful and profound that it
was not to be sounded or to be judged as others were. But one thing
could have melted or caused the unconquerable spirit to bend, and this
was the overwhelming passion of love--not a slight, tender feeling, but a
great and powerful one, such