CHAPTER XI
THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL
The Duchess was frowning for all she was worth. Alicia and Barbara triedto look serious, but were obviously only too ready to join in any frolicwhich happened to be passing in Ursula Glynde's lively little head.
"Oh!" said the latter, as soon as she had partially recovered herbreath. "Oh! I vow 'tis the best of the bunch."
With the freedom of a spoilt child, who knows how welcome are itscaresses, Ursula sidled up to the Duchess of Lincoln and sat down uponthe arm of her chair.
"Your Grace, a share of your seat I entreat," she said gaily, heedlessof stern looks. "Nay! I'll die of laughing unless you let me read youthis."
"Child! child!" admonished the Duchess, still trying to look severe,"this loud laughter is most unseemly--and your cheeks all ablaze! Whatis it now?"
"What is it, sweet Grace?" responded the young girl. "A poem! Listen!"
She smoothed out the piece of paper, spread it out upon her knee andbegan reading solemnly:--
"If all the world were sought so farre Who could find such a wight? Her beauty twinkleth like a starre Within the frosty night. Her roseall colour comes and goes With such a comely grace, More ruddier too than doth the rose, Within her lively face."
"And beneath this sonnet," she continued, "a drawing--see!--a heartpierced by a dagger. _His_ heart--_my_ beauty which twinkleth like astarre!"
Who could resist the joy and gladness, the freshness, the youth, thegirlishness which emanated from Ursula's entire personality? The twoother girls pressed closely round her, giggling like school-children atsight of the rough, sentimental device affixed to the love poem.
The Duchess vainly endeavoured to keep up a semblance of sternness, butshe could not meet those laughing eyes, now dark, now blue, now anever-changing grey, alive with irrepressible mischief, yet full ofloving tenderness. She felt that her wrath would soon melt in thesunshine of that girlish smile.
"Lady Ursula, this is most unseemly," she said as coldly as she could."How came you by this poem?"
Ursula threw her arms round the feebly-resisting old dame.
"Hush!" she whispered, "in your dear old ears! I found it, sweet Duchess. . . beside my stockings . . . when I came out of my bath!"
"Horror!"
"Now, Duchess! dear, sweet, darling, beautiful Duchess, tell me, whothink you wrote this poem? And who--_who_ think you placed it near mystockings?"
The Duchess was almost speechless, partly through genuine horror, butchiefly because a sweet, fresh face was pressed closely to her oldcheek.
"'Twas not the Earl of Norfolk," continued Ursula meditatively. Sheseemed quite unconscious of the enormity of her offence, and sought theeyes of her young friends in confirmation of these various surmises. "Hecannot write verses. Nor could it be my lord of Overcliffe, for he wouldnot know where to find my stockings."
"The vanity of the child!" sighed Her Grace. "Think you these greatgentlemen would write verses to a chit of a girl like you?"
But her kind eyes, resting with obvious pride on the dainty figurebeside her, belied the severity of her words.
"Yes," replied Ursula decisively, "bad ones!--not such beautiful versesas these."
Then she went on with her conjectures.
"And there's my lord of Everingham, and the Marquis of Taunton, and----"
"His Grace of Wessex," suggested Alicia archly, despite the Duchess'swarning frown.
"Alas, no!" sighed Ursula, "for he has never been allowed to see me."
"Ursula!" came in ever-recurring feeble protests from the old dowager.
But the young girl was wholly unabashed.
"But he _will_ see me--before to-night," she said.
The others exchanged significant glances.
"To-night?"
"Yes! What have I said? Why do you all look like that?"
"Because your conduct, child, is positively wanton," said the Duchess.
But Ursula only hugged the kind old soul all the more closely.
"Now--now," she coaxed, "don't be angry, darling. There!--look!" sheadded with mock horror, "your coif is all awry."
With deft fingers she rearranged the delicate lace cap over Her Grace'swhite curls.
"So," she said, "now you look pretty again--and your nice, fat cheekshave the sweetest of dimples. Nay, I vow, all these young gallants onlysigh with love for me because _you_ frown on them so!"
"What a madcap!" sighed the Duchess, mollified.
"You won't be angry with me?" queried the girl earnestly.
"Nay! that depends what mad pranks you have been after."
"Sh--sh!--sh!--'tis a deadly secret. Barbara, Alicia, come a littlecloser."
She paused a moment, whilst all three of them crowded round Her Grace ofLincoln's chair.
Then Ursula said solemnly--
"The Queen is in love with my future husband!"
The Duchess of Lincoln nearly fell backwards in a faint.
"Ursula!" she gasped.
"Nay, that's not the secret," continued Ursula, quite unperturbed, "forthat is town-talk, and every one at Court knows that she won't let himsee me for fear he should fall in love with me. And my lord Cardinal isfurious because he wants the Queen to marry Philip of Spain, and he iswishing His Grace of Wessex down there, where all naughty Cardinals go."
"Child! . . . child! . . ."
"But the days are slipping by, darling," added the young girl, with justa shade of seriousness in her eyes. "All these intriguers may fight asmuch as they like, but if I do not wed His Grace of Wessex, if he shouldbe inveigled into marrying the Queen, I must to the convent. My dearfather made me swear it on his deathbed, when I was beside myself withgrief, and scarce knew what I did. 'There is but one true gentleman towhom I would trust my child,' he said to me; 'swear to me, Ursula, thatif Wessex claims you not, that you will never marry any one else, butspend your days in happy singleness in a convent. Swear it, little one.'He was so ill, so dear, I swore and----"
"The convent is the proper place for such a feather-brain as yourself,"concluded the Duchess with as gruff a voice as she could command.
"But I do not wish to be a nun," protested Ursula, as tears began togather in her eyes, "and I do want to wed Wessex, who is handsome--andgallant--and witty--and--and," she added coquettishly, "when he seesme--I vow he'll not let me go to a convent either, so----"
She leant closer to the kind dowager and once more whisperedconfidentially in her ear.
"So, as the Queen is engaged in prayers for at least half an hour, I'vesent His Grace word by one of the pages that the Duchess of Lincolndesired his presence in this chamber--here!"
But this was really past bearing.
"I! . . ." exclaimed the Duchess in horror. "I? . . . desire hispresence? . . . Merciful heavens! what will His Grace think?"
Once more Ursula, like the veritable child that she was, was dancinglike mad round the room, now alone, clapping her tiny hands together,then seizing one of her companions by the waist, she whirled with her,round and round, until she fell back breathless against the Duchess'schair. And all the while her tongue went prattling on, now talking attop speed, anon singing out the words in the madness of her glee.
"And he is coming, dear Duchess," she said. "'He'll attend upon HerGrace at once!' these were his words to that pet of a page, and he'llsee me--and--and----"
Now she paused, kneeling beside her old friend, putting coaxing armsround the bulky figure of the kind soul.
"But don't tell him my name all at once, Duchess darling," she whisperedentreatingly; "let him fall in love with me without knowing that I amhis affianced bride--for that might prejudice him against me. Justmumble something when he asks my name, and let me do the rest. Give meanother kiss, darling. Alicia--Alicia," she cried in feverish anxiety,"is my kerchief straight at the back? and--and--oh, my hair!"
Still in that same madly-excited mood, she ran to a small oval mirrorwhich hung on one of the walls, close to t
he great bay window.
The Duchess during that brief moment's respite tried to collect herscattered wits.
"But oh! what shall I say to His Grace?" she moaned distractedly."Child! child! to your folly there is no end!"
A quickly smothered shriek from Ursula now brought the other girls toher side in the embrasure. She was pointing across the court to thegateway beneath the clock tower.
"He is coming!" she cried, with a slightly nervous tremor in her voice."It is he, with my lord Everingham; they are laughing and talkingtogether. . . . Oh, how handsome he looks!" she added enthusiastically."My future husband, _my_ lord, not the Queen's--mine own, mine own!Alicia, tell me, hast ever seen a more goodly sight than that of _my_future husband in that beautiful silken doublet and with that dear, deardog of his walking so proudly behind him? Harry Plantagenet, thou'rt alucky dog, and I'll kiss thee first, and--and----"
Then she ran back to the Duchess.
"Two minutes to mount the stairs, two more to cross the Great Hall, thenthe watching chamber, the presence chamber. . . . In six minutes he willbe here--hush!--I hear a footstep! . . . Holy Virgin, how my heartbeats!"
There had come a discreet knock at the door. All four women were tooexcited to respond, but the next moment the door was opened and a youngpage, dressed in the same gorgeous livery which Henry VIII hadoriginally prescribed, entered and bowed to the ladies.
Then he turned to the Duchess of Lincoln.
"Her Majesty the Queen desires the immediate presence of Her Grace andof her maids-of-honour in the Oratory."
There was dead silence in the room whilst the page once more bowed inthe elaborate manner ordained by Court etiquette; then he walkedbackwards to the door, and stood there, holding it open ready for theladies to pass.
"No, no, no!" whispered Ursula excitedly, as the Duchess immediatelyrose to obey.
"Ladies!" commanded Her Grace.
"One minute, darling," entreated Ursula, "just one short little minute!"
But where the Queen's commands were concerned Her Grace of Lincoln wasadamant.
"Ladies!" she ordered once more.
Alicia and Barbara, though terribly disappointed at the failure of theexciting conspiracy, were ready enough to obey. Ursula wildly ran backto the window.
"I can see his silhouette and that of my lord Everingham slowly movingacross the Great Hall," she said.
"Oh! why is he so slow?"
The Duchess turned to the page.
"Precede!" she commanded. "We'll follow."
She then pointed to the door. Alicia and Barbara, endeavouring to lookgrave, walked out with becoming dignity.
Her Grace went up to Ursula, who was still clinging to the windowembrasure with passionate obstinacy.
"Lady Ursula Glynde," she said sternly, "if you do not obey HerMajesty's commands instantly, you'll be dismissed the Court this veryday."
And while His Grace of Wessex was slowly wending his way towards thechamber where he had been so eagerly expected, Lady Ursula, defiant andrebellious, was being peremptorily marshalled off in an oppositedirection.
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