Some women cannot be captured at all; they must give themselves; of this class pre-eminently was Mary.  Others again will meet you half way and kindly lend a helping hand; while some, like Jane, are always on the run, and are captured only by pursuit.  They are usually well worth the trouble though, and make docile captives.  After that smile from the door I felt that Jane was mine; all I had to do was to keep off outside enemies, charge upon her defenses when the times were ripe and accept nothing short of her own sweet self as ransom.

The next day Brandon paid his respects to the king and queen, made his adieus to his friends and rode off alone to Bristol.  You may be sure the king showed no signs of undue grief at his departure.

CHAPTER XVI

A Hawking Party

A few days after Brandon’s departure, Mary, with the king’s consent, organized a small party to go over to Windsor for a few weeks during the warm weather.

There were ten or twelve of us, including two chaperons, the old Earl of Hertford and the dowager Duchess of Kent.  Henry might as well have sent along a pair of spaniels to act as chaperons—­it would have taken an army to guard Mary alone—­and to tell you the truth our old chaperons needed watching more than any of us.  It was scandalous.  Each of them had a touch of gout, and when they made wry faces it was a standing inquiry among us whether they were leering at each other or felt a twinge—­whether it was their feet or their hearts, that troubled them.

Mary led them a pretty life at all times, even at home in the palace, and I know they would rather have gone off with a pack of imps than with us.  The inducement was that it gave them better opportunities to be together—­an arrangement connived at by the queen, I think—­and they were satisfied.  The earl had a wife, but he fancied the old dowager and she fancied him, and probably the wife fancied somebody else, so they were all happy.  It greatly amused the young people, you may be sure, and Mary said, probably without telling the exact truth, that every night she prayed God to pity and forgive their ugliness.  One day the princess said she was becoming alarmed; their ugliness was so intense she feared it might be contagious and spread.  Then, with a most comical seriousness, she added: 

“Mon Dieu!  Sir Edwin, what if I should catch it?  Master Charles would not take me.”

“No danger of that, my lady; he is too devoted to see anything but beauty in you, no matter how much you might change.”

“Do you really think so?  He says so little about it that sometimes I almost doubt.”

Therein she spoke the secret of Brandon’s success with her, at least in the beginning; for there is wonderful potency in the stimulus of a healthy little doubt.

We had a delightful canter over to Windsor, I riding with Mary most of the way.  I was not averse to this arrangement, as I not only relished Mary’s mirth and joyousness, which was at its height, but hoped I might give my little Lady Jane a twinge or two of jealousy perchance to fertilize her sentiments toward me.