Sir Mortimer

r knee, under her clasped hands, lay a light racket, for she had strayed this way from battledore and shuttlecock and the sprightly company of maids of hono

e, surprise the bare soul. A curiously wrought net of gold caught her dark hair in its meshes, and pearls were in her ears, and around the white column of her throat rising between the ruff's gossam

a step!" Then, seeing who stood before her, she left her seat between the oak roots and curtsied low. "

me, his friend, this happy chance. Now I make my supplication to you, to whom I would be that, and more. All this week have I vainly sought for speech with you

h they smiled, a moisture as of half-sprung tears. "Is it of Henry?" she asked. "Ah, sir,

the morrow should leave behind him court and court ways, and all fair sights such as this, leaned against the oak

est, her boy in her hand. Where I go I know not, nor what thread Clotho is spinning. Strange dangers are to be found in strange places, and Jove and lightning are not comfortable neighbors. Ulysses took moly in his hand when there came to meet him Circe's gentlemen pensioners, and G

ard glance. "Your valor, sir, should prove your

, holdeth within it, forever, a song so sweet that the chanting of the sirens matters not; there is that precious stone which, as the magnet draweth the iron, so ever constraineth Honor, bidding him mount every breac

lady of some months' standing, could parley euphuism with the best, and yet t

then to Hymettus might one follow them; also that precious stone may be found, though, alack! often enough a man is so poor a lapidary t

ed truelove

ree Alpina is worth all store of roses; one ruby outvalueth many pearls; he who hath already the word of magic needeth to buy no Venus

fairer than the tree Alpina, and have been in the land of emeralds and where pearls do grow, and yet have never gathered the fragrant leaf, that leaf of true and

hen she spoke her words came somewhat breathlessly, having

own than that of Cleon for Dione! And, lo! now your own lines--Master

ery wanderings

wanted, ther

e is star of g

approach to the green bank where she rested. "D

zed past him at the blue heaven showing between the oak leaves. "If prayer with ev

write, calli

he ceased to speak, nor knew there had been in her tone both pain and wistfulness. Presently she laughed out, with th

dded,

ady Pure Innocence, wondering with the rest of the world?--and all the whi

our h

your half-way people! And her hair-

s loved beyo

ey

her. "Her eyes--her eyes are wonderful!

going out in a gesture of dismay and anger. "Sir,--sir," she stammered, "since you m

ked scarce thrice in all my life--my Dione, to whom my heart is as a crystal, to whom I have written all things! I must s

e answered, in a strange voice

en, trained as she herself to instantly draw an airy veil between true feeling and the exigency of the moment, he became once more the simple courtier.

h her scarlet lip between her teeth, she took her seat again. For a minute there was silence in the little grov

over over the place where danger is, to visit strange coasts and Ultima Thule, to strain ever towards those islands of the blest where goes the man who has endured to the end, his notes when he sang or when he played became warlike, resolved, speaking of death and fame and stern things, or of things of public weal.... But all the time the shepherd was a lonely man, because his spirit was too busy to find ease for itself, and because, though he had helped other shepherds in the building of their cottages, his own heart had no hearthstone where he might warm him

p; with level gaze she sat in a dream. "Yet some there be who migh

tly than any in all that plain, and Astrophel would oft urge Cleon to his dwellin

ear Penshurst!" brea

e was dust upon the spirit of the shepherd Cleon: that had happened which had left in his mouth the taste of Dead Sea fruit; almost was he ready to break his pipe across, and to sit still forever, covering his face

e ago," said Da

m the noblest of his kind, they found a goodly gathering of the chiefest of the dwellers in the plain. Nor were lacking young sheph

sweet Countess,"

turned a rosy cheek, then the night hid her path with his spangled mantle, and all this company of shepherdish folk left the gray lawns for Astrophel's house, that was lit with clear wax and smelled sweet of roses. And after a while, when there had been comfit talk and sipping of sweet wine, one sang, an

honor, her chin in her hands; "I knew (dear lady!) what, being woman

for a moment, then went on with

one basin, and all around were set rose-bushes, seen dimly because of the mist. Presently, when the light was stronger, issued from the house one of those nymphs whom Astrophel's sister delighted to gather around her, and coming to the fountain, began to search about its rim for a jewel that had been lost. She moved like a mist wreath in that misty place, but Cleon saw that her eyes were dark, and

raised arms clasped her hands behind her head. Her upturned face was hidden from him, but he saw her wh

aft, designed to work inward ever deeper and deeper until it reached the heart's core, did now but ensanguine itself, he made no cry nor any sign of that sweet hurt. He found and gave the nymph the jewel she had lost, and broke for h

of her who stood with heaving bosom, with upturned fac

s all too frail a bridge to trust my hope upon. For what should have the paper said? I am so near a stranger to thee that scarce have we spoken twice together--therefore love me! I am a man who hath done somewhat in the busy world, and shall, God willing, labor once again, but now a cloud overshadows me--therefore love me! I have no wealth or pomp of place to give thee, and I myself am of those whom God hath bound to wander--therefore love me! I chanced upon thee beside a fountain ringed with roses, gray with mist; the sun came out and I s

omankind,' and, 'These are flowers for her coronal--will she not know it among a thousand wreaths?' and, 'This, ah, this, will show her how deeply now hath worked the arrow!' and, 'Now she cannot choose but know--her soul will hear my

: "It may be that my soul guessed.... If it

o not. As I was then, so am I now, save that I have served the Queen again, and that cloud I spoke of is overpast. I must go forth to-morrow to seek, to find, to win, to lose--God

kly; in all her mien there was still wonder, grace supreme, a rich unfolding like the opening of a flower to the bliss of understanding. Trembling, her hand went down, and resting on his shoulder, gave him her accolade. She bowed herself towards him; a

Now I know that I envied while I

"Oh, Love is as the sun! So the sun

Oh, Love is bliss ... but anguish too

that go return not. Ah, tell m

a living man. If I die, I shall but wait

lant lovers in a gallant time, changing love-looks in a Queen's garden, above the silver Thames. A tide of amethyst fell the sunset light; the swallows circled overhead; a sound was heard of singing voices; violet knight and rose-colored maid of honor, they came at last to say farewell. That night in the lit Palace, amid the garish crowd, t