"My God, my God!" murmured she, while streams of tears flooded her
face, "and I am to inspire the queen with love for the Earl of
Surrey, and I--I love him!"




CHAPTER IX.

LENDEMAIN.


The great levée was over. Sitting beside the king on the throne,
Catharine had received the congratulations of her court; and the
king's smiling look, and the tender words which, in undertone, he
now and then addressed to the queen, had manifested to the prudent
and expert courtiers that the king was to-day just as much enamored
of his young consort as he had been yesterday of his bride.
Therefore, every one exerted himself to please the queen, and to
catch every look, every smile, which she let fall, like sunbeams,
here and there, in order to see for whom they were intended, so that
they might, perchance, by this means, divine who were to be the
future favorites of the queen, and be the first to become intimate
with them.

But the young queen directed her looks to no one in particular. She
was friendly and smiling, yet one felt that this friendliness was
constrained, this smile full of sadness. The king alone did not
notice it. He was cheerful and happy, and it seemed to him,
therefore, that nobody at his court could dare sigh when he, the