He desires your leave to come and prostrate himself at
your feet."
She crimsoned from brow to chin, then paled again; her bosom
heaved in tumult. Between dread and yearning she spoke a faint
consent.
Next day he came, brought by Frey Miguel to the convent parlour,
where her Excellency waited, her two attendant nuns discreetly in
the background. Her eager, frightened eyes beheld a man of middle
height, dignified of mien and carriage, dressed with extreme
simplicity, yet without the shabbiness in which Frey Miguel had
first discovered him.
His hair was of a light brown--the colour to which the golden
locks of the boy who had sailed for Africa some fifteen years ago
might well have faded--his beard of an auburn tint, and his eyes
were grey. His face was handsome, and save for the colour of his
eyes and the high arch of his nose presented none of the
distinguishing and marring features peculiar to the House of
Austria, from which Don Sebastian derived through his mother.
Hat in hand, he came forward, and went down on one knee before
her.
"I am here to receive your Excellency's commands," he said.
She steadied her shuddering knees and trembling lips.
"Are you Gabriel de Espinosa, who has come to Madrigal to set up
as a pastry-cook?" she asked him.
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