soft little fool she said why should you ask me to forgive you i might as fairly ask you to forgive me � that i keep my shape and show no wasting anne rose from her chair and hurried to her sister s side sinking upon her knees there to kiss her hand sister she said one could never dream that you could need pardon � i love you so � that all you do it seems to me must be right � whatsoever it might be drew her fair hands away and clasped them on the top of her head proudly as if she crowned herself thereby her great and splendid eyes setting themselves upon her sister s face all that i do she said slowly and with the steadfast high of an self � ail a lady of quality that i do right � f or me i make it so by doing it do u think that i am conquered by the laws that other women and before because they dare not break them though they long to do so am my own law � and the law of some others it was by this time the first month of the summer and to night there was again a ball at which the beauty was to all eyes but twas of greater import than the one she had previously it being to the majority of the heir to an old name and estate who had been early and was highly connected counting indeed among the members of his family the duke of who was one of the richest and most envied in great britain his being of the oldest his numerous estates the most splendid and beautiful and the long history of his family full of heroic deeds this nobleman was also a distant to the earl of at this ball for the first time for months sir john appeared again he did not arrive on the gay scene until an hour somewhat late but there was one who had seen him early though no human soul had known of the event in the rambling ill cared for grounds of hall there was an old rose garden which had once been the pride and pleasure of some a lady of quality lady of the house though this had been long ago and now it was but a lonely wilderness where roses only grew because the dead lady had loved them in her loneliness and and anne had tended them and with their own hands planted and during their childhood and young maiden days but of late years even they seemed to have forgotten it having become discouraged perchance � having no to do the work and the weeds and so running riot there were high hedges and winding paths overgrown and run wild the stronger rose bushes grew in tangled masses flinging forth their rich among the weeds such as were more delicate struggling to live among them became more frail and scant season by season a careless foot would have trodden them beneath it as their branches grew long and in the grass but for many months no foot had trodden there at all and it was a place deserted in the centre was an ancient broken was in these days in the midst of a sort of thicket where a bold of the finest red roses and their rich color in the sun and though the place had been so long for gotten and it was not the custom for it to be visited about this broken the a lady of quality grass was a little trodden and on the morning of the young heir s coming of age stood there in the glowing sunlight as if waiting this was no less than mistress herself she was clad in a morning gown of white which seemed to make of her more than ever a tall creature less a woman than a conquering goddess � and she had piled the dial with scarlet red roses which she was choosing to into a massive wreath or crown for some purpose best known to herself her head seemed and more splendidly held on high even than was its common wont but upon these roses her eyes were downcast and were curiously smiling as also was her ripe lip whose scarlet the blossoms with but poorly it was a smile like this perhaps which mistress feared and trembled before for twas not a tender smile nor a melting one if she was waiting she did not wait long nor to be sure would she have long waited if she had been kept by any daring this was not her way twas not a who came soon stepping hurriedly with light feet upon the grass as though he feared the sound which might be made if he had trodden upon the gravel it was sir john who came toward her in his riding costume he came and stood before her on the other side ii a lady of quality of the dial and made her a bow so low that a quick eye might have thought twas almost mocking his feather sweeping the ground caught a fallen rose which clung to it his beauty when he stood upright seemed to defy the very s self and all the morning world but mistress did not lift her eyes but kept them upon her roses and went on weaving why did you choose to come she asked why did you choose to keep the in answer to my message he replied to her at this she lifted her great shining eyes and fixed them full upon him i wished she said to see what you would say � more to see you than to hear and i he i came she held up her white hand with a rose in it as though a queen should lift a you came she answered 