pon virgin lips smiling and
murmuring the sweet "Good-morrow!"

Anne was the first to wake; and as the bright winter morn, robust with
frosty sunbeams shone cheerily upon Sibyll's face, she was struck with
a beauty she had not sufficiently observed the day before; for in the
sleep of the young the traces of thought and care vanish, the aching
heart is lulled in the body's rest, the hard lines relax into flexile
ease, a softer, warmer bloom steals over the cheek, and, relieved
from the stiff restraints of dress, the rounded limbs repose in a more
alluring grace! Youth seems younger in its slumber, and beauty more
beautiful, and purity more pure. Long and dark, the fringe of the
eyelash rested upon the white lids, and the freshness of the parting
pouted lips invited the sister kiss that wakened up the sleeper.

"Ah, lady," said Sibyll, parting her tresses from her dark blue eyes,
"you are here, you are safe!--blessed be the saints and our Lady! for I
had a dream in the night that startled and appalled me."

"And my dreams were all blithe and golden," said Anne. "What was thine?"

"Methought you were asleep and in this chamber, and I not by your side,
but watching you at a little distance; and lo! a horrible serpent glided
from yon recess, and, crawling to your pillow, I heard its hiss, and
strove to come to your aid, but in vain; a spell seemed to chain my
limbs. At last I found voice, I cried aloud, I woke; and mock me not,
but I surely heard a parting footstep, and the low grating of some
sliding door."

"It was the dream's influence, enduring beyond the dream. I have often
felt it so,--nay, even last night; for I, too, dreamed of another,
dreamed that I stood by the altar with one far away, and when I
woke--for I woke also--it was long before I could believe it was thy
hand I held, and thine arm that embraced me."

The young friends rose, and their toilet was scarcely ended, when again
appeared in the chamber all the stateliness of retinue allotted to the
Lady Anne. Sibyll turned to depart. "And whither go you?" asked Anne.

"To visit my father; it is my first task on rising," returned Sibyll, in
a whisper.

"You must let me visit him, too, at a later hour. Find me here an hour
before noon, Sibyll."

The early morning was passed by Anne in the queen's company. The
refection, the embroidery frame, the closheys, filled up the hours.
The Duchess of Clarence had left the palace with her lord to visit
the king's