He bent very low and kissed the tips of her fingers.
"When shall we meet again, my prince ?" she asked.
"This day week, an it please you, my queen," he murmured.
And then he turned to go.

She meant to stand there and watch him cross the tangled lawn, and the little bridge, and to see him lose himself amidst the great shadows of the park.
But he had scarce gone a couple of steps when a voice, issuing from the doorway close behind her, caused her to turn in quick alarm.
"Sue! in the name of Heaven! what doth your ladyship here and at this hour ?" The crisis which the young girl had almost challenged, had indeed arrived.

Mistress de Chavasse--carrying a lighted and guttering candle, was standing close behind her.

At the sound of her voice and Sue's little cry of astonishment rather than fear, Prince Amede d'Orleans too, had paused, with a muttered curse on his lips, his foot angrily tapping the flagstones.
But it were unworthy a gallant gentleman of the most chivalrous Court in the world to beat a retreat when his mistress was in danger of an unpleasant quarter of an hour.
Sue was more than a little inclined to be defiant.
"Mistress de Chavasse," she said quietly, "will you be good enough to explain by what right you have spied on me to-night?
Hath my guardian perchance set you to dog my footsteps ?" "There was no thought in my mind of spying on your ladyship," rejoined Mistress de Chavasse coldly.

"I was troubled in my sleep and came downstairs because I heard a noise, and feared those midnight marauders of which we have heard so much of late.