It was her habit cunningly to lead Mistress Margery to talking about him and relating long histories of his conquests and his grace.

Mistress Wimpole knew many of them, having, for a staid and prudent matron, a lively interest in his ways.

It seemed, truly--if one must believe her long- winded stories--that no duchess under seventy had escaped weeping for him and losing rest, and that ladies of all ranks had committed follies for his sake.
Mistress Anne, having led her to this fruitful subject, would sit and listen, bending over her embroidery frame with strange emotions, causing her virgin breast to ache with their swelling.

She would lie awake at night thinking in the dark, with her heart beating.

Surely, surely there was no other man on earth who was so fitted to Clorinda, and to whom it was so suited that this empress should give her charms.