grace had been wanting to make all as beautiful and glorious within.

As the Lady Anne grew up to womanhood, the sweetness of her
disposition and manners began to be acknowledged by those, who had
seen without astonishment her extraordinary beauty; and many persons
of distinction, who would hold no kind of fellowship with the Lord
Somerset, sought the acquaintance of his innocent daughter for her
own sake.

The most beloved friend of the Lady Anne was the Lady Ellinor G----,
the eldest daughter of the Earl of G----: and with her, Lady Anne
often passed several months in the year. A large party of young ladies
were assembled at G---- Castle; and it happened that a continual
rain had confined the fair companions within doors the whole summer
afternoon. They sat together over their embroidery and various kinds
of needlework, telling old tales of fearful interest--the strange
mishaps of benighted travellers--stories of witchcraft, and of
mysterious murder.

The conversation turned at last to the legends belonging to a certain
family; and one circumstance was mentioned so nearly resembling, in
many particulars, the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, that the Lady
Ellinor, scarcely doubting that some slight suspicion of her parents'
crimes had reached the ears of the Lady Anne, determined to change
the subject at once. She proposed to her fair friends that they
should ramble together through the apartments of the castle; and she
called for the old housekeeper, who had lived in the family from her
childhood, to go along with them, and asked her to describe to them
the person and manners of Queen Elizabeth, when she had visited at the
castle, and slept in the state apartment; always since called, The