After the others in the room had
paid their respects to her Grace, she beckoned me to her chair and
said:--
"Your cousin will arrive presently. I have just seen her. Look for a
sensation when she comes. She is radiant, though her gown is as simple as
a 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 and
whispering: "A word in your ear, Clyde. You may have it if you play your
cards right and are persistent in importunity."
"No, your Highness. I ask for nothing save favor to my cousin," I
replied.
"She is like to have enough of that and to spare, without asking, if she
is 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 she
comes."
At that moment Frances entered on the arm of the Mother of the Maids, and
the duke, catching sight of her, exclaimed:--
"God have pity on the other women! Half has not been told, baron. There
is 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 pay
their respects to the duke and the duchess, a buzz of admiration could be
heard on every hand, and Mary whispered to me behind her fan:--
"If the king were unmarried, I would wager all I have that your cousin
would be our queen within a month.
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