-a
complete noble human thing, to whom it surely seemed that nature should
be kind, since he had so honoured and done reverence to the gifts she
had bestowed upon him. 'Twas this his illustrious companion saw and was
moved by.

"You have seen her," he said, "but--since you wear that look which I
can read--something has come between. Had you two bared hearts to each
other for but one hour, as 'twas ordained you should, you would stand
before me so happy a man that none could pass you by and not turn to
behold again the glow of the flame of joy burning within your soul."

My Lord Duke of Osmonde drew a long, deep breath as he listened,
looking down upon the ground.

"Yes," he said, "'twould have been so."

But he spoke no further on the subject, nor did his Grace of
Marlborough, for suddenly there came to him a certain memory--which was
that he had heard that the beautiful wild creature who had set
Gloucestershire on fire had made a great marriage, her bridegroom being
the Earl of Dunstanwolde, who was the Duke of Osmonde's kinsman. And it
was she he himself had felt was born to mate with this man, and had
spoke of it in Flanders, finding my lord Duke had seen her at a
distance but had not encountered her in any company. And at last it
seemed that they had met, but not until she had given herself to
another.

That night as he drove homeward after an interview with the Queen at
Kensington his coach rolled through a street where was a great house
standing alone in a square garden. 'Twas a house well known for its
size and massive beauty, and he leaned forward to glance at it, for no
other reason than his remembrance that it was the home of his lordship
of Dunstanwolde, that fact, in connection with the incident of the
morning, wakening in him a vague interest.

"'Tis there she reigns Queen," he said, "with her old lord worshipping
at her feet as old lords will at the feet of young wives and beauties.
Poor gentleman--though she is kind to him, they say. But if 'twere the
other man--Good God!" As he uttered the exclamation he drew back within
the coach. 'Twas long past midnight and the lights of Dunstanwolde
House were extinguished, but in the dark on the opposite side of the
street there walked a tall figure wrapped in a long cloak.

"There is no other gentleman of such inches and so straight," his Grace
said. "Good Lord! how a man can suffer in such case, and how we are all
alike--schoolboys, scullions, or Dukes--a