s she who wept, and one whose heart,
too, might have been broke by a cruel, deadly blow.

This poor simple child (who was in time cured of her wound and married
an honest fellow who loved her) was not the only one of Sir John Oxon's
victims whom her Grace protected. There were, indeed, many of them, and
'twas as though she had made it her curious duty to search them out.
When she and her lord lived sumptuously at Osmonde House in town,
shining at Court, entertaining Royalty itself at their home, envied and
courted by all as the happiest married lovers and the favourites of
Fortune, my lord Duke knew that many a day she cast her rich robes and,
clad in the dark garments and black hood, went forth to visit strange,
squalid places. Since the hour of his first meeting her on her return
from such an errand, when they had spoken together, he had never again
forbade her to follow the path 'twas plain she had chosen.

"Were I going forth to battle," he had said, "you would not seek to
hold me back; and in your battle, for it seems one to me, though I know
not what 'tis fought for, I will not restrain you."

"Ay, 'tis a battle," she had said, and seized his hands and kissed them
as if in passionate gratitude. "And 'tis a debt--a debt I swore to
pay--if that we call God would let me. Perhaps He will not, but were He
you--who know my soul--He would."

Yet but a few hours later, when he joined her in the Mall, where she
had descended from her coach to walk with the world of fashion and
moved among the wits and beaux and leaders of the mode, drawing all
round her by the marvel of her spirit and the brilliancy of her gayety
and bearing, he hearing her rich laughter and meeting the bright look
of her lovely, flashing eyes, wondered if she was the woman whose voice
still lingered in his ears and the memory of whose words would not
leave his fervent heart.

Their love was so perfect a thing that they had never denied each other
aught. Why should they; indeed, how could they? Each so understood and
trusted the other that they scarce had need for words in the deciding
of such questions as other pairs must reason gravely over. There was no
question, only one thought between them, and in his life a thing which
grew each hour as he had long since known it would. 'Twas this woman
whom he loved--this _one_--her looks, her ways, her laughter and her
tears, her very faults, if she should have them, her past, her present,
and her future whic