us, great eyes were full
of an imploring which made them seem soft with tears, and thus they were
now as she looked up at him.

"I will do all I can," she said. "I will obey every law, I will pray
often and give alms, and strive to be dutiful and--holy, that in the end
He will not thrust me from you; that I may stay near--even in the lowest
place, even in the lowest--that I may see your face and know that you see
mine. We are so in His power, He can do aught with us; but I will so
obey Him and so pray that He will let me in."

To Anne she went with curious humility, questioning her as to her
religious duties and beliefs, asking her what books she read, and what
services she attended.

"All your life you have been a religious woman," she said. "I used to
think it folly, but now--"

"But now--" said Anne.

"I know not what to think," she answered. "I would learn."

But when she listened to Anne's simple homilies, and read her weighty
sermons, they but made her restless and unsatisfied.

"Nay, 'tis not that," she said one day, with a deep sigh. "'Tis more
than that; 'tis deeper, and greater, and your sermons do not hold it.
They but set my brain to questioning and rebellion."

But a short time elapsed before the marriage was solemnised, and such a
wedding the world of fashion had not taken part in for years, 'twas said.
Royalty honoured it; the greatest of the land were proud to count
themselves among the guests; the retainers, messengers, and company of
the two great houses were so numerous that in the west end of the town
the streets wore indeed quite a festal air, with the passing to and fro
of servants and gentlefolk with favours upon their arms.

'Twas to the Tower of Camylott, the most beautiful and remote of the
bridegroom's several notable seats, that they removed their household,
when the irksomeness of the extended ceremonies and entertainments were
over--for these they were of too distinguished rank to curtail as lesser
personages might have done. But when all things were over, the stately
town houses closed, and their equipages rolled out beyond the sight of
town into the country roads, the great duke and his great duchess sat
hand in hand, gazing into each other's eyes with as simple and ardent a
joy as they had been but young 'prentice and country maid, flying to hide
from the world their love.

"There is no other woman who is so like a queen," Osmonde said, with
tenderest smiling. "And yet