Accordingly her uncle rode in with her to Portsmouth on a shopping expedition, and as the streets of the seaport were scarcely safe for a young woman without an escort, he carried a little book in his pocket wherewith he beguiled the time that she spent in the selection of his frying-pans, fire-irons, and the like, and her own gloves and kerchiefs.  They dined at the ‘ordinary’ at the inn, and there Dr. Woodford met his great friends Mr. Stanbury of Botley, and Mr. Worsley of Gatcombe, in the Isle of Wight, who both, like him, were opposed to the reading of the Declaration of Indulgence, as unconstitutional, and deeply anxious as to the fate of the greatly beloved Bishop of Bath and Wells.  It was inevitable that they should fall into deep and earnest council together, and when dinner was over they agreed to adjourn to the house of a friend learned in ecclesiastical law to hunt up the rights of the case, leaving Anne to await them in a private room at the Spotted Dog, shown to her by the landlady.

Anne well knew what such a meeting betided, and with a certain prevision, had armed herself with some knotting, wherewith she sat down in a bay window overlooking the street, whence she could see market-women going home with empty baskets, pigs being reluctantly driven down to provision ships in the harbour, barrels of biscuit, salt meat, or beer, being rolled down for the same purpose, sailors in loose knee-breeches, and soldiers in tall peaked caps and cross-belts, and officers of each service moving in different directions.  She sat there day-dreaming, feeling secure in her loneliness, and presently saw a slight figure, daintily clad in gray and black, who catching her eye made an eager gesture, doffing his plumed hat and bowing low to her.  She returned his salute, and thought he passed on, but in another minute she was startled to find him at her side, exclaiming:  “This is the occasion I have longed and sought for, Mistress Anne; I bless and thank the fates.”

“I am glad to see you once more before I depart,” said Anne, holding out her hand as frankly as she could to the old playfellow whom she always thought ill-treated, but whom she could never meet without a certain shudder.

“Then it is true?” he exclaimed.

“Yes; I am to go up with Lady Worsley from Southampton next week.”

“Ah!” he cried, “but must that be?” and she felt his strange power, so that she drew into herself and said haughtily—­

“My dear mother wished me to be with her friends, nor can the King’s appointment be neglected, though of course I am extremely grieved to go.”

“And you are dazzled with all these gewgaws of Court life, no doubt?”

“I shall not be much in the way of gewgaws just yet,” said Anne drily.  “It will be dull enough in some back room of Whitehall or St. James’s.”

“Say you so.  You will wish yourself back—­you, the lady of my heart—­mine own good angel!  Hear me.  Say but the word, and your home will be mine, to say nothing of your own most devoted servant.”