dy!" he said--"such a lady! Lie to her if you can; palter if
you know how; try upon her the smallest honest shrewd trick, and see how
it fares with you. Were it not that she is generous as she is piercing
of eye, no man could serve her and make an honest living."

She went to her chamber and was attired again sumptuously for dinner.
Before she descended she dismissed her woman for a space on some errand,
and when she was alone, drawing near to her mirror, gazed steadfastly
within it at her face. When she had read Osmonde's letter her cheeks had
glowed; but when she had come back to earth, and as she had sat under her
woman's hands at her toilette, bit by bit the crimson had died out as she
had thought of what was behind her and of what lay before. The thing was
so stiffly rigid by this time, and its eyes still stared so. Never had
she needed to put red upon her cheeks before, Nature having stained them
with such richness of hue; but as no lady of the day was unprovided with
her crimson, there was a little pot among her toilette ornaments which
contained all that any emergency might require. She opened this small
receptacle and took from it the red she for the first time was in want
of.

"I must not wear a pale face, God knows," she said, and rubbed the colour
on her cheeks with boldness.

It would have seemed that she wore her finest crimson when she went forth
full dressed from her apartment; little Nero grinned to see her, the
lacqueys saying among themselves that his Grace's courier had surely
brought good news, and that they might expect his master soon. At the
dinner-table 'twas Anne who was pale and ate but little, she having put
no red upon her cheeks, and having no appetite for what was spread before
her. She looked strangely as though she were withered and shrunken, and
her face seemed even wrinkled. My lady had small leaning towards food,
but she sent no food away untouched, forcing herself to eat, and letting
not the talk flag--though it was indeed true that 'twas she herself who
talked, Mistress Anne speaking rarely; but as it was always her way to be
silent, and a listener rather than one who conversed, this was not
greatly noticeable.

Her Ladyship of Dunstanwolde talked of her guests of the afternoon, and
was charming and witty in her speech of them; she repeated the _mots_ of
the wits, and told some brilliant stories of certain modish ladies and
gentlemen of fashion; she had things to say of