On this Anne's eyes were fixed with an uplifted tenderness until she broke her silence.
"Soon I shall be away," she said.

"Soon all will be left behind.

And I would tell you that my prayers were answered--and so, sure, yours will be." No man could tell what made the duchess then fall on her knees, but she herself knew.

'Twas that she saw in the exalted dying face that turned to hers concealing nothing more.
"Anne! Anne!" she cried.

"Sister Anne! Mother Anne of my children! You have known--you have known all the years and kept it hid!" She dropped her queenly head and shielded the whiteness of her face in the coverlid's folds.
"Ay, sister," Anne said, coming a little back to earth, "and from the first.