The Touchstone of Fortune Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  A SMILE AT THE DEVIL

  In the evening the duchess gave a little ball in her parlor to presentFrances to the king and to the queen, if her Majesty should attend, tothe Duke of York, and to others living in Whitehall immediately connectedwith the palace household.

  I went to the ball early, wishing to be there before Frances arrived,to help her if need be over the untrodden paths of court forms andetiquette. Soon after I entered her Grace's parlor, Mary Hamilton camein with her mother, and I joined them. I should have been glad to see agleam of joy in Mary's eyes when I approached, but I had to be contentwith a calm, gracious "I'm glad to see you, baron."

  Presently the Duke of York arrived with the duchess on his arm, and theytook their places at the end of the room opposite the musicians' gallery.Mary and I hastened to kiss their hands, and, withdrawing to a littledistance, awaited Frances's arrival. After the others in the room hadpaid their respects to her Grace, she beckoned me to her chair andsaid:--

  "Your cousin will arrive presently. I have just seen her. Look for asensation when she comes. She is radiant, though her gown is as simple asa country girl's."

  "I hear you have brought us a great beauty, baron," remarked the duke.

  "Yes, your Highness. We who love her think so," I answered.

  "You'll be wanting to be made an earl for your service in bringing her,eh, baron?" said the duke, laughing. Then bending toward me andwhispering: "A word in your ear, Clyde. You may have it if you play yourcards right and are persistent in importunity."

  "No, your Highness. I ask for nothing save favor to my cousin," Ireplied.

  "She is like to have enough of that and to spare, without asking, if sheis half as beautiful as she is said to be," returned his Grace.

  "Of that your Highness may now be your own judge," I returned. "Here shecomes."

  At that moment Frances entered on the arm of the Mother of the Maids, andthe duke, catching sight of her, exclaimed:--

  "God have pity on the other women! Half has not been told, baron. Thereis no beauty at court compared to hers. Earl? You may be a duke!"

  While Frances and the Mother were making their way across the room to paytheir respects to the duke and the duchess, a buzz of admiration could beheard on every hand, and Mary whispered to me behind her fan:--

  "If the king were unmarried, I would wager all I have that your cousinwould be our queen within a month."

  Count Grammont, who was standing behind me, leaned forward and whispered,"Your cousin, baron?"

  "Yes, count," I answered.

  "Mon Dieu!" he returned, shrugging his shoulders. "You will soon be aduke. We may not call her the queen of hearts, for already we have one,but surely she is the duchess of hearts. I wish I might present her inParis. Ah Dieu! She would make quickly my peace with my king!"

  Poor Grammont's one object in life was that his peace might be made withhis king. He lived only in the hope of a recall to Versailles.

  Frances made a graceful courtesy, as she kissed their Highness's hands,and, when the brief ceremony of presentation to the duke was over, turnedto Mary and me, glad to have a moment's respite beside us. She saidnothing, but I could see that for the moment the gorgeous scene aboutus had bewildered her. The vast mouldings of gold, the frescoed cupids,nymphs and goddesses, the wonderful paintings, the brilliant tapestries,all fairly shone in the light of a thousand wax candles, while thepolished floor of many-colored woods was a mirror under her feet,reflecting all this beauty.

  The powdered and rouged courtiers, arrayed in silks, gold lace andjewels, seemed more like creatures from a land of phantasy than beings offlesh and blood. The men with their great curled wigs, their plumed,bejewelled hats and glittering gold swords, seemed to have stepped fromthe pages of a wonderful picture-book, and the women, whose gorgeousgowns exposed their bepowdered skin halfway to their waists, measuringfrom the chin, and whose lifted petticoats made a proportionate display,measuring from the feet, surely were brought from some fair land of follyand shame.

  I touched Frances's hand to awaken her, and whispered: "Show neitherwonder nor interest. See nothing, or these fools about us will laugh."

  She laughed nervously, nodding her head to tell me that she understood.

  "But I must look. I can't help it," she said.

  "You must see it all without looking," I suggested, and Mary helped meout by saying:--

  "It is all tinsel, not worth looking at. That is the quality of all youwill see at court; gold foil, king and all."

  Presently I saw the gentlemen removing their hats and tucking them undertheir arms, so I knew the king had entered, and felt sure he would sooncome up to salute his hostess, the duchess, near whom we were standing.

  I told Frances that she was about to meet the king, and admonished her tokeep a strong heart. She smiled as she answered:--

  "I think I have met him already." Then she told us briefly of herencounter with the tipsy gentleman in the Stone Gallery.

  She had entirely recovered her self-possession and was prepared to meetcalmly the man who was a demigod to millions of English subjects.

  The queen did not come with the king, so he loitered a moment among thecourtiers before making his way to the duchess, but the delay was short,and soon he presented himself. The duchess rose when he approached, buthardly allowed him time to finish his bow till she took his arm, turnedtoward us, and smiled to Frances to approach. I touched my cousin's arm,gently thrusting her forward, and the next moment she was courtesying tothe floor before the man who believed, in common with most of hissubjects, that he owned by divine right the body and soul of everyman in England, together with every man's ox and his ass, his wife andhis daughter, and all that to him belonged.

  The king raised Frances, still retaining her hand, and bent mostgallantly before her.

  "I have met Mistress Jennings," said he, smiling, "and she told me to paymy compliments to the devil."

  The king laughed, so of course the courtiers who heard him also laughed.Instantly the news spread, and one might have heard on every hand, "Thenew maid told the king to go to the devil." But as the king seemed to bepleased, the courtiers were, too, and the new maid of honor became aperson of distinction at once.

  The king's unexpected remark disconcerted Frances for a moment, and herconfusion added to her charm. In a moment she recovered herself,courtesied, and said:--

  "I beg your Majesty not to remind me of my terrible mistake. I thoughtyou were a bold cavalier, and of course did not know that I was speakingto my king. I offer my humble apology. Pray do not pay your complimentsto the devil, but keep them for me, your Majesty's most devoted subject."

  "Odds fish!" exclaimed his Majesty. "I'm glad of the reprieve. I did notwant to go to the devil, but Odds fish! I'd be willing to do so for asmile from my most devoted subject."

  "Merci, sire!" answered Frances, with a courtesy and smiling asgraciously as even a king could ask.

  "If my most devoted subject will honor her king by asking him to dancethe next coranto with her, he will do his best to make amends for hisboldness earlier in the day, for he is naturally a modest king."

  "A modest manner and a bold heart, I fear, your Majesty," returnedFrances, making the most pleasing compliment she could have paid hersovereign. "May I be honored with your Majesty's hand for the nextcoranto?"

  "It is my will," graciously answered the king.

  The ball opened with a brantle which his Majesty danced with the duchess,Frances remaining, meantime, with Mary and me, awaiting the coranto withthe king, a royal favor which would win for her the envy of many a lady,as the king seldom danced.

  When the brantle was finished, the king worked his way over to Frances,and when the bugle announced the coranto, she was saved the embarrassmentof seeking him, as she must have done had he not been by her side.

  An altogether unexpected ordeal awaited Frances, for when the Frenchmusicians began to play and his Majesty led her out, she found herselfand the king t
he only dancers on the floor except the Duke of York withMistress Stuart, and the Duke of Monmouth with his father's friend, LadyCastlemain. Every one else stood by the wall, many of the ladies hopingto see the new maid fail, and all of the gentlemen eager to behold herand to comment.

  The coranto is a difficult movement to perform gracefully. It consists ofa step forward, a pause during which the dancer balances on one foot,holding the other suspended forward for a moment, then another step,followed by a bow on the gentleman's part and a deep courtesy by thelady.

  I confess that I was uneasy, for Frances was a country girl, and thecoranto was the most trying, though, if well done, the most beautiful ofall dances.

  Mary clasped my hand in alarm for Frances and whispered: "I do hope shedances well. The lack of grace in a woman is inexcusable. She had betternot dance at all than poorly."

  Mary's hopes were realized at once, for the king and Frances had not beenon the floor three minutes till the gentlemen began to clap their handssoftly, and in a moment a round of applause came from the entireaudience, as often happened in those informal balls.

  The king turned to Frances, saying: "They are applauding your dancing.Take your bow."

  "No, it's all for your Majesty," she returned.

  "No, no, my dancing is an old story to them. It is your grace they areapplauding."

  "Spare me, your Majesty," she pleaded, laughing.

  As the applause continued, they stopped dancing for a moment, and Francesmade her courtesy to the audience. Thereupon the applause increased, andshe courtesied again, kissing her hand as she rose from the floor.

  The girl was in high spirits, and laughed as she talked to the king, whosmiled on her in a manner that caused my Lady Castlemain to remark:--

  "The young milkmaid's affectations are disgusting." Other equallyflattering remarks were to be heard from women of the Castlemain stamp,but the men were a unit in praising the new beauty.

  Of course the king soon declared his undying love for her, and sheanswered, laughing:--

  "If your Majesty will swear by your grandmother's great toe that you havenever before spoken to a woman in this fashion, I'll listen and believe,but failing the oath, you must pardon me if I laugh."

  "I hope you would not laugh at your king?" he asked.

  "Ay, at the Pope," she retorted, "if I found him amusing."

  "But if I swear by the sacred relic you name, never again so long as Ilive to speak in this fashion to any other woman, may I proceed?"returned the king.

  "I would not be a party to an oath whereby my king would be forsworn,"she answered.

  To which the king replied: "I shall say what I please to my most devotedsubject. Am I not the king?"

  "I am content that you say what you please if you grant me the sameprivilege," answered Frances.

  The king laughed and said he would gladly grant the privilege in private,but that in public he had a "damnable dignity" to uphold.

  * * * * *

  After the dancing was over for the evening, the king offered Frances apurse of gold to be used at the card-table, but she declined, and asnearly every one else went to the tables, the duchess granted leave toFrances, Mary, and myself to depart.

  Mary and I went with Frances to her parlor adjoining her bedroom, wherewe remained for an hour or more talking over the events of the night.Mary had heard one in the ballroom say this and another say that. Franceshad heard all sorts of remarks, some of them kind, others spiteful.I had heard nothing but praise of my cousin, and all that we had heardwas discussed excitedly and commented on earnestly or laughingly, as thecase might be.

  Frances was in high spirits till by an unlucky chance Mary spoke of herbrother George, of whose acquaintance with Frances she knew nothing, andinstantly my cousin's eyes began to fill. I saw that the tears wouldcome, despite all her efforts, if something were not done to stay them.Therefore I spoke of her father's joy when he should hear of her triumph,and my remark furnished an excuse for her weeping. In the course of anhour Mary and I left Frances and went to the card-tables, where we foundMary's mother, who at that time, happening to be winner in a large sum,was ready to quit the game, so we all walked home across the park withlinkboys.

  * * * * *

  During the following month or two Hamilton was abroad, neither I nor anyone else at court so far as I knew having heard from him. After a timethe rumors connecting his name with Roger's death reached my ears, butI paid no heed to them, believing them to have been made of whole cloth,for I did not know that he had been present when the crime was committed.But one day my cousin's actions and words set me thinking.

  Roger was only a tanner; therefore after a deal of stir in the matter ofhis death with no result more tangible than vague insinuations fromCrofts and his friends, the investigation by the London authorities wasdropped, at least for a time. Roger's tragedy was forgotten or was putaside, save in so far as it was kept alive by Crofts, who felt that itwas well to keep the person of George Hamilton as a fender betweenhimself and the crime.

  So, as frequently happens when a bad man turns good, Hamilton's troublesbegan to gather and were awaiting his return. I did not know where he was(though I afterwards learned he was in Paris), and therefore was unableto warn him. In fact, I knew little that was worth telling him at thetime of which I am writing, since I did not believe he was really indanger. I did not even know that he was aware of the Roger Wentworthtragedy.

  Meantime Frances was making progress at court, of which even I, with allmy hopefulness, had little dreamed. What she desired above all else wasmoney for her father. Sir Richard and Sarah had moved up to London to benear Frances and were living in a modest little house at the end of acul-de-sac called Temple Street, just off the Strand near Temple Bar.

  The opportunity to get money soon came to Frances in the form of an offerby the king of a small pension which would have placed her and her fatherbeyond the pale of want. But the king's manner in offering it had causedher to refuse.

  She had fallen into the wholesome way of telling me all that occurredtouching herself, which during this time consisted chiefly of the effortsof nearly every man of prominence in Whitehall, from the king and theduke to bandylegged Little Jermyn, the lady-killer, to convince her ofhis desperate passion. She laughed at them all, and her indifferenceseemed to increase their ardor.

  One day Frances met me in the Stone Gallery as I was coming from mylodging in the Wardrobe over the Gate, and asked me to walk out with her.I saw that something untoward had happened, so I joined her and we wentto the park. When we were a short way from the palace, she told me of theking's offer and tried to tell me of his manner, the latter evidentlyhaving been meant to be understood by Frances in case she wished to seeit as he doubtless intended she should. She saw it as the king intended,but the result was far from what he expected.

  "I turned my back on him," she said angrily, "and left him without somuch as a word or a courtesy, and I intend to leave Whitehall."

  "By no means!" I exclaimed. "Accept or refuse the king's pension as youchoose, and pass serenely on your way, unconscious of what he may haveimplied. If you remain at court, you must learn not to see a mere impliedaffront, and perhaps to smile at many an overt one. Before you came youhad full warning of what would happen. Don't see! Don't feel! Don't care!Be true to yourself and smile at the devil if you happen to meet him. Hehas no weapon against a smile. One escapes many a disagreeable situationby not seeing it, and one always finds trouble by looking for it."

  "Your philosophy wearies me," she answered petulantly.

  "In that case, I'll confine my remarks to facts and to a mere statementof your duty. You must have money. Accept the king's pension and laugh athim."

  "I'll not take your advice," she retorted angrily. "I'll return to myfather's house at once. He was right. A decent woman has no business atcourt."

  "Since you speak so plainly, I'll do likewise," I rejoined, growingangry. "You came to
court to make your fortune by marriage. That is abald, ugly way to state the case, but it is the truth. Admit it."

  "I fear I must," she answered, hanging her head.

  "You surely could not ask greater progress toward your desire than youare making," I continued. "You came into favor at a bound, and have beengrowing each day, not only with the king, but with all the court,including the queen, the duchess, and the duke. Every one loves you and,better still, respects you, which is a distinction few beautiful womenenjoy nowadays. Dick Talbot, the Duke of Tyrconnel, the richest unmarriednobleman in England, is eager to marry you, and would ask you to be hiswife if you would but throw him a smile."

  "I hate him!" she retorted impatiently. "An overgrown Irish fool. Onewould as well marry a bull calf!"

  "But he is as decent as any man I know, and will meet all your purposesin coming to court in the matter of wealth and station. I don't know thatit is a misfortune for a woman to marry a man she can rule."

  "Yes, it is," she answered. "She always despises him. I should prefer onewho would beat me to such a man."

  "But if you intend to carry out the purpose you had in coming to court,you--"

  But she interrupted me, speaking slowly, almost musingly: "The purpose Ihad, perhaps, but not the one I have. I did not know myself. I did notknow. I doubt if any girl does. I don't want to marry any man."

  "Is it because another man fills your heart?" I asked, speaking gently."Tell me, my beautiful sister, tell me. I'll find no fault with you. I'llhelp you if I can."

  I received a sigh for my answer, and another and another, as she walkedby my side, hanging her head. But when I urged her to speak, she raisedher eyes to mine, and there was a cold, angry glint in them as sheasked:--

  "Do you mean--?"

  She did not mention Hamilton's name, but I knew whom she meant andanswered:--

  "Yes."

  A long pause followed, during which I was unable to read the expressionon her face, but presently she spoke, her voice trembling with anger oremotion, I knew not which:--

  "I hate him! If he were to touch my hand, I believe I should want to cutit off! I hate him--that is, I try to hate him."

  Her words and manner caused me uneasiness in two respects: first, it ledme to fear that she loved Hamilton; and second, in view of the rumors Ihad heard connecting his name with Roger Wentworth's death, it flashedupon me that possibly he was the man she had recognized by the light ofNoah's lanthorn. Either of these surmises, if true, was enough to mar mypeace of mind, but together they brought me trouble indeed.

  I had come to look for a speedy accomplishment of my cousin's goodfortune, and also to regard Hamilton as my dearest friend among men.Still I was helpless to remedy these evils if they really existed. What Idid at the time was to insist, first, that Frances regain her senses assoon as possible, and second, that she say nothing of her intention toleave Whitehall for at least ten days. To my first request she repliedthat she had never been so completely in possession of her senses as atthat present moment, and my second, she positively refused to consider.

  The best of women want their way, at least in part, so I said, "I abandonmy first request as unreasonable."

  She looked up to me, hardly knowing whether to laugh or to frown, but shechose the former, and I continued, "And as to my second suggestion, Iamend it to, say, five or six days."

  "Three!" she insisted. So we let it stand at that, each with a sense oftriumph.

  We returned to the palace, and soon I had an opportunity to ask the kingfor a word privately. He graciously consented, and led me to his closet,overlooking the River Thames. From this closet, on the second floor, aprivy stairs led down to a door which opened on a small covered porch atthe head of a flight of stone steps falling to the king's private bargelanding at the water's edge. When I noticed the narrow stairway, I had nothought of the part it would one day play in the fortunes and misfortunesof Frances, Hamilton, and myself.

  On the king's command, I sat down near him, and he asked:--

  "What can I do for you, baron? I do not remember your having eversolicited a favor of me, and I shall be delighted to grant what you ask,if I can."

  "I seek no favor, your Majesty," I returned. "I simply want to tell youthat my cousin, Mistress Jennings, has just informed me of her intentionto leave Whitehall, and I wonder--"

  "No, no," cried the king, interrupting me. "She shall not go! Why is shediscontented here?"

  "I am not sure that I can tell your Majesty," I answered evasively. "I amloath to see her go, and, knowing well your kindliness, hoped you wouldbe willing to urge her to remain."

  "Gladly," replied the king. "She is the most beautiful ornament of ourcourt, and we must not lose her. I don't mind telling you for your ownear that I suspect the cause of her sudden resolution and respect it."

  He laughed, and after a long pause, continued:--

  "I forgot that she was fresh from the country, and that she stillretained part of her prudish ideas, so while walking with her yesterdayon the Serpentine, I offered her a pension, to which she is justlyentitled, adorning our court as she does. But I fear she took my honestefforts at gallantry too seriously. My dear baron, the girl shallhave her pension without the slightest return on her part save one of herrare smiles now and then. Say to her, please, that the king sends hisapology and eagerly awaits an opportunity to offer it in person."

  "I thank your Majesty," I answered, rising and bowing, "and feel sureyou have done all that is needful to keep my cousin at court. She hascertain prudish standards which I fear are too easily shocked, and isas self-willed as--well, as a beautiful woman--"

  "Ought to be," interrupted the king, laughing and finishing my sentence.

  I wanted him to suspect that his gallant speeches would be repeated tome, hoping that the knowledge might temper them.

  After talking a moment longer with him, I asked permission to withdraw,and at once sought Frances. When I found her in the parlor of theduchess, I drew her to one side and told her of my interview with theking.

  "You have tamed the lion," I said, "and you may accept the pensionwithout harm to your sensitive dignity. But please don't make a fool ofyourself again by taking such a matter seriously. Keep your head, keepyour heart, keep your temper, and thrive. Lose either, and have the wholecourt laughing at you. I'm sorry Hamilton is so fixed in your heart thatyou cannot dislodge him, but this good may grow out of the evil: you mayjudge other men dispassionately."

  A great sigh was her only answer.

  * * * * *

  Frances took my advice, along with the king's pension, and soon learnedthat as good wine needs no bush, so true virtue needs no defence.

  A brief account of Frances's triumphs and adventures at court isnecessary before this history can be brought to the point of Hamilton'sreturn; that is, to the time when I knew he was in London.

  Her first great triumph was over the heart of the king, to whoselovemaking she learned to listen and to smile; not the smile of assent,but of amusement.

  Soon our august monarch became silly with love of the new beauty, andwith her help often made himself ridiculous. On one occasion, a fewmonths after Frances's installation as maid of honor, he left a love notein her muff which she pushed out at one end as she thrust her hand in atthe other. She was careful to do this little trick in such a manner thatthose who saw the king place the note in her muff should see it fall out.It was picked up by an inquisitive soul, reached the hands of the"lampooners," and appeared in biting verse in the next issue of the _NewsLetter_.

  When the king complained to Frances of her ill-treatment of his note, shedeclared, with a great show of astonishment, that she had not seen it,which was literally true, since she had only felt it. She said that itmust have fallen to the ground as she took up her muff, and tried to makeit appear that she was greatly disappointed.

  "I would not slight so great an honor as a letter from my king," she saiddemurely.

  "No, no," returned h
is Majesty, laughing. "Our most devoted subject wouldnot slight her king's message. I believe you did it intentionally."

  "In which case your Majesty will leave no more notes for me in public,"answered Frances. And the king's choice lay between taking offence andlooking upon the affair as a jest. He was too far gone in love to takeoffence, so he chose to laugh.

  On another occasion, at the queen's ball, the king asked Frances to walkout to the garden with him.

  "It is dark, your Majesty, and I fear the dark," she replied. "Let uswalk there in the daytime, so that every one may see how graciously myking honors me."

  He could not coax her out, so he said: "Very well, my prudish MissSolomon. Have your way and break my heart."

  "To do either would please me," she retorted. "I like to have my own way,and there are few women who would not be delighted to break a handsomeking's heart."

  Frances having captured the king, every other man at court was heradmirer. She could have had her choice of a husband from among thenoblest and richest men of the land, but she showed no one especialfavor. If one imagined that she smiled with marked graciousness on him,he soon learned that others were equally fortunate, and after a timeeach accepted his smile from her and took it for granted that his failureto receive greater favor was because of the king's success. All praisedher discretion, though many believed that she was concealing adroitlywhat she would not have the world suspect. With all her circumspection,it soon became the common talk at court that she was the king's newfavorite, though there was no reason given for the rumor save the beliefthat the king was not to be resisted.

  * * * * *

  The Duchess of York and I knew the truth concerning Frances, but allWestminster and London talked of the new star at Whitehall who wasoutshining Castlemain, Nell Gwynn, Stuart, and the host of otherluminaries who had scintillated with scandal ever since the king's returnto Britain's throne.

  One morning, shortly after the king's last-mentioned conversation withFrances, she met Nell Gwynn in the palace garden, and was surprised whenNelly addressed her as "Little Solomon."

  "Where did you learn the name?" asked Frances.

  "From its author, the king," answered Nell. "Come home with me and I'lltell you all about it."

  They took Nell's barge and went to Westminster water stairs, where theywalked across the park to her house in Pell Mell.

  Frances cordially hated Lady Castlemain and the king's other brazenfriends, but, after having met Nelly several times, she had learned tolove the sweet, profane, ignorant girl because, despite her apparentlyevil life, there was honesty, kindliness, and truth in Nelly's heart.

  When the two young women were seated in Nelly's cozy parlor, she began toopen her heart to Frances.

  "Yes, the king told me how he invited you to go to the garden with himone evening, and how he dubbed you 'Little Solomon' when you refused."

  "Ah, did he?" asked Frances, surprised at the king's willingness to speakof his rebuff.

  "Yes," returned Nelly, surprising Frances still further by a soberness ofmanner rarely seen in the laughing girl.

  After a long pause, Nelly continued: "Do you know, I hate the fatCastlemain woman. And the bow-legged Stuart hussy! She seems to be proudof her crooked shanks and exhibits them on every possible occasion. Thereis something about extreme ugliness that drives it to exposure, on theprinciple, I suppose, that murder will out. And there's ugly Wells! Ihate her, too! Her charm, like that of the Puritan's face, lies wholly inher damned ugliness. I hate them all, though I do not fear them, but oh,Mistress Jennings--" Here she leaned forward and grasped Frances's wristalmost fiercely, "The human heart is a strange thing, at least mine is,for I love you, but oh, I fear you!"

  "No, no," cried Frances, at a loss just what to say.

  "Yes," continued Nell, insistently. "Let me tell you! Of late I canneither eat nor sleep because of the dread that you will rob me of theking's love. I can do nothing but pray and swear. He does love me morethan he loves all the world, because he knows I am true to him! And hislove is meat and drink and life itself to me! If you could see but onelittle part of my love for him, if you could know that I worship him,God help me! as I should worship only my Maker, if you could understandthat if you were to steal him from me, you would take my life, my verysoul,--if so poor a thing as I can have a soul,--you, who may choose andpick men at will, would leave his love to me!"

  "You need not fear, you need not fear," said Frances, soothingly.

  "He is not true to me," continued Nelly, impetuously, "and I know it. ButI do not care. I have his love, and with that I am content. I would notask fidelity. I care nothing for the wealth he gives. I accept only ameagre portion of what he offers, and have refused honors and titleswhich would be a burden to me. I want only the man, Charles Stuart."

  She began to weep softly, drying her eyes and trying to laugh. "He's notmuch of a man, and I know his weaknesses better than any one in all theworld knows them. But he is all to me, and I beg you to leave me thispart of a man, for you only, of all women I know, can take him from me."

  "I would not take the king from you, even to be his queen, if that werepossible. I promise that I shall not rob you of his love. It is the lastthing in the world I want. You say you love me. I believe you and giveyou like return. Every one loves you, Nelly."

  "Ah, I thank you--Frances," answered Nelly, hesitating at the name.

  "Let us seal a pact of friendship," said Frances. "We shall need eachother's help in this vile court that takes its quality from its king."

  "Yes, truly he is vile," returned Nelly. "But women of my class, born andbred in the slums of life, do not measure a man by his virtues, but bytheir love of him. I know not how it is, nor why, but this I know, welove because of what we give, and the more we give, the more we love."

  "I fear the same is true of all women," answered Frances, with a sigh."If a woman could but say to her heart, 'Thou shalt' and 'Thou shaltnot,' there would be fewer unhappy women in this world."

  "Oh, do you, too, know that awful truth?" exclaimed Nelly, eagerlybringing her hands to Frances's shoulders. "Tell me all about it. Thereis nothing sweeter than to hear the troubles of a friend. They help tomake our own seem smaller. Tell me."

  "I cannot," answered Frances, now as woebegone as Nelly herself. "It istoo terrible even to think upon, yet I think of nothing else. A woman maylove a man to the point of madness and still hate him."

  "But it is not the king you love?" cried Nelly, in alarm.

  "No, no, Nelly. You have my word. But let us talk of something else,"answered Frances.

  "No, no, let us talk about you," insisted Nelly, whose curiosity wasequalled only by her good nature.

  "Not another word," returned Frances. "Don't you want to go to the bargefor a ride on the river?" And Nelly eagerly assented.

  When they were seated in the barge, Nelly's waterman asked her where heshould take them, and she proposed going to the Bridge, leaving the bargeat the Bridge stairs, and walking up Gracious Street to the Old SwanTavern for dinner. Frances liked the plan and accepted Nelly's invitationto dinner--and to trouble.