CHAPTER VII.
A Cloud in the Horizon.
But it must not be imagined that Sir Jocelyn's whole time was passed in attendance on the court.

Not a day flew by that he did not pay a visit to Aveline.

She had taken a little cottage, where she dwelt in perfect seclusion, with one female attendant, old Dame Sherborne,--the same who had accompanied her on her compulsory visit to Sir Giles Mompesson,--and her father's faithful old servant, Anthony Rocke.

To this retreat, situated in the then rural neighbourhood adjoining Holborn, Sir Jocelyn, as we have said, daily repaired, and the moments so spent were the most delicious of his life.

The feelings of regard entertained for him from the first by Aveline, had by this time ripened into love; yet, mindful of her solemn promise to her father, she checked her growing affection as much as lay in her power, and would not, at first, permit any words of tenderness to be uttered by him.