Never yet in all
the months of her reign since her coronation in January of last
year had she felt so much a queen, and so conscious of the power
of her high estate; never so much a woman, and so conscious of
the weakness of her sex. The interaction of those conflicting
senses wrought upon her like a heady wine. She leaned more
heavily upon the silken arm of her handsome Master of the Horse,
and careless in her intoxication of what might be thought or
said, she--who by the intimate favour shown him had already
loosed the tongue of Scandal and set it chattering in every court
in Europe--drew him forth from that thronged and glittering
chamber of the Palace of Whitehall into the outer solitude and
friendly gloom.
And he, nothing loth to obey the suasion of that white hand upon
his arm, exultant, indeed, to parade before them all the power he
had with her, went willingly enough. Let Norfolk and Sussex
scowl, let Arundel bite his lip until it bled, and sober Cecil
stare cold disapproval. They should mend their countenances soon,
and weigh their words or be for ever silenced, when he was master
in England. And that he would soon be master he was assured to-
night by every glance of her blue eyes, by the pressure of that
fair hand upon his arm, by the languishing abandonment with which
that warm young body swayed towards him, as they passed out from
the blaze of lights and the strains of music into the gloom and
silence of the gallery leading to the terrace.
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