that moment
said that which they would afterwards remember. With those of the Court
she talked royalty, the humours of her Majesty, the severities of her
Grace of Marlborough; with statesmen she spoke with such intellect and
discretion that they went away pondering on the good fortune which had
befallen one man when it seemed that it was of such proportions as might
have satisfied a dozen, for it seemed not fair to them that his Grace of
Osmonde, having already rank, wealth, and fame, should have added to them
a gift of such magnificence as this beauteous woman would bring; with
beaux and wits she made dazzling jests; and to the beauties who desired
their flatteries she gave praise so adroit that they were stimulated to
plume their feathers afresh and cease to fear the rivalry of her
loveliness.

And yet while she so bore herself, never once did she cease to feel the
presence of that which, lying near, seemed to her racked soul as one who
lay and listened with staring eyes which mocked; for there was a thought
which would not leave her, which was, that it could hear, that it could
see through the glazing on its blue orbs, and that knowing itself bound
by the moveless irons of death and dumbness it impotently raged and
cursed that it could not burst them and shriek out its vengeance, rolling
forth among her worshippers at their feet and hers.

"But he _can_ not," she said, within her clenched teeth, again and
again--"_that_ he cannot."

Once as she said this to herself she caught Anne's eyes fixed helplessly
upon her, it seeming to be as the poor woman had said, that her weakness
caused her to desire to abide near her sister's strength and draw support
from it; for she had remained at my lady's side closely since she had
descended to the room, and now seemed to implore some protection for
which she was too timid to openly make request.

"You are too weak to stay, Anne," her ladyship said. "'Twould be better
that you should retire."

"I am weak," the poor thing answered, in low tones--"but not too weak to
stay. I am always weak. Would that I were of your strength and courage.
Let me sit down--sister--here." She touched the divan's cushions with a
shaking hand, gazing upward wearily--perchance remembering that this
place seemed ever a sort of throne none other than the hostess queen
herself presumed to encroach upon.

"You are too meek, poor sister," quoth Clorinda. "'Tis not a chair of
coronation or the wools