"I ask for but one moment," pleaded Leicester. "The queen sleeps at this time after dinner, and perhaps your father would not object if you were to grant this little favor to the first nobleman of the realm."
"You do not know my father, my lord. He is very strict regarding my conduct," murmured the drooping head.
"I ask for but one little moment," continued the earl, "in which to tell you that you have filled my heart with adoration and love."
"I should not listen to you, my lord. Were I mindful of my happiness, I should return to the Hall at once," said the drooping lashes and hanging head.
"You lying wench," thought I. By that time I was thoroughly angered.
"Only one little moment on the settle," pleaded Leicester, "that I may speak to you that which I wish so ardently to say."
"Can you not speak while we walk, my lord?" asked Dorothy.
I felt a bitter desire to curse the girl.
"It is difficult for me to speak while we walk," said Leicester, cautiously taking the girl's hand; so she permitted him to lead her to the settle under the holly bush, on the opposite side of which Madge and I were sitting.
The earl retained the hand for a moment after he and Dorothy were seated, but she gently drew it away and moved a little distance from his Lordship. Still, her eyes were drooped, her head hung low, and her bosom actually heaved as if with emotion.
"I will tell John of your shamelessness," I said to myself. "He shall feel no more heartaches for you--you wanton huzzy."
Then Leicester poured forth his passion most eloquently. Poesy, verse, and rhetoric all came to help him in his wooing. Now and then the girl would respond to his ardor with "Please, my lord," or "I pray you, my lord," and when he would try to take her hand she would say, "I beg you, my lord, do not." But Leicester evidently thought that the "do not" meant "do," for soon he began to steal his arm about her waist, and she was so slow in stopping him that I thought she was going to submit. She, however, arose gently to her feet and said:--
"My lord, I must return to the Hall. I may not longer remain here with you."
The earl caught her hand and endeavored to kiss it, but she adroitly prevented him, and stepping out into the path, started slowly toward the Hall. She turned her head slightly toward Leicester in a mute but eloquent invitation, and he quickly followed her.