She whose every desire from childhood up had been gratified, whose every whim seemed to her a paramount necessity, would stop at nothing when the dearest wish a woman’s heart can coin was to be gained or lost.  Brandon’s element of prudence might help him, and might forestall any effort on his part to win her, but Mary had never heard of prudence, and man’s caution avails but little when set against woman’s daring.  In case they both should love, they were sure to try for each other, and in trying were equally sure to find ruin and desolation.

A few evenings after this I met the princess in the queen’s drawing-room.  She beckoned me to her, and, resting her elbows on the top of a cabinet, her chin in her hands, said:  “I met your friend, Captain Brandon, a day or two ago.  Did he tell you?”

“No,” I answered; “Jane told me, but he has not mentioned it.”

It was true Brandon had not said a word of the matter, and I had not spoken of it, either.  I wanted to see how long he would remain silent concerning an adventure that would have set most men of the court boasting at a great rate.  To have a tilt with the ever-victorious Mary, and to come off victor, was enough, I think, to loosen any tongue less given to bragging than Brandon’s.

“So,” continued Mary, evidently somewhat piqued, “he did not think his presentation to me a thing worth mentioning?  We had a little passage-at-arms, and, to tell you the truth, I came off second best, and had to acknowledge it, too.  Now, what do you think of this new friend of yours?  And he did not boast about having the better of me?  After all, there is more virtue in his silence than I at first thought.”  And she threw back her head, and clapped her hands and laughed with the most contagious little ripple you ever heard.  She seemed not to grieve over her defeat, but dimpled as though it were a huge joke, the thought of which rather pleased her than otherwise.  Victory had grown stale for her, although so young.

“What do I think of my new friend?” I repeated after her; and that gave me a theme upon which I could enlarge eloquently.  I told her of his learning, notwithstanding the fact that he had been in the continental wars ever since he was a boy.  I repeated to her stories of his daring and bravery, that had been told to me by his uncle, the Master of the Horse, and others, and then I added what I knew Lady Jane had already said.  I had expected to be brief, but to my surprise found a close and interested listener, even to the twice-told parts, and drew my story out a little, to the liking of us both.

“Your friend has an earnest advocate in you, Sir Edwin,” said the princess.

“That he has,” I replied.  “There is nothing too good to say of him.”

I knew that Mary, with her better, clearer brain, held the king almost in the palm of her hand, so I thought to advance Brandon’s fortune by a timely word.

“I trust the king will see fit to favor him, and I hope that you will speak a word in his behalf, should the opportunity occur.”