grace of little hand to his lips his lashes somewhat moist as he hung over his treasures you scarce can believe that he is here the whispered with a touching softness indeed i scarce believe it myself twas not fair of him to keep us waiting five years when we so greatly for his coming perhaps he waited knowing that we expected so much from him � such beauty and such wisdom and such strength let us look at him together love the physician will order you away from me soon but let us see first how handsome he is she thrust the covering aside and the two heads � one golden and one brown � pressed closer together that they might the better behold the infant charms which were such joy to them i would not let them bind his little limbs and head as is their way she said from the first hour i spoke with his chief nurse i gave her my command that he should be left free to grow and to kick his pretty legs as soon as he was strong enough see john he them a little now they say he is of wondrous size and long and finely made and indeed he seems so to me � and tis not only because i am so proud is it i know but little of their looks when they are so young sweet her lord answered his voice and eyes as tender as her own for in he felt his grace of ii himself moved as he had been at no other hour in his life before though he was a man of a nature as gentle as twas strong i will own that i had ever thought of them as strange red things a man almost held in fear and whose a woman but loved because she was near angel but this one � and he drew nearer still with a grave countenance � surely it looks not like the rest tis not so red and � its tiny face hath a sort of it hath a broad brow and its eyes will sure be large and well set the slipped her fair arm about his neck � he was so near to her twas easy done � and her smile trembled into sweet tears which were half laughter ah we love him so she cried how could we think him like any other we love him so and are so happy and so proud and for a moment they remained silent their cheeks pressed together the scent of the spring flowers up to them from the terrace the church bells out through the radiant air he was bom of love his mother whispered at last he will live amid love and see only honour and he will grow to be a noble gentleman said my lord duke and some day he will love a his grace of noble lady and they will be as we have been � as we have been beloved and their faces turned towards each other as if some law of nature drew them and their lips met � and their child stirred softly in its first sleep chapter ii he is the king the bells at intervals throughout the day in at least five villages over which his grace of was lord � at they at at at at � and in each place when night fell were lighted and oxen whole while there were dancing and and drinking of ale on each village green in truth as dame had said he had begun well � walter john of and well it seemed he would go on he in such a way as was a wonder to his and nurses the first gentlemen finding themselves with no occasion for their skill since he suffered from no infant whatsoever but fed and slept and grew and fairer every hour he grew so finely � perhaps because his young mother had defied ancient custom and forbidden his limbs and body to be bound � that at three months he was as big and strong as an infant of half a year twas plain he was built for a tall man with broad shoulders and noble head but a few months had passed before his his grace of baby features themselves into promise of marked beauty and his brown eyes gazed back at human beings not with infant but with a look which had in it somewhat of question and reply his of serving women were filled with such ardent pride in him that his chief nurse had much to do to keep the peace among them each wishing to be first with him and being jealous of another who made him laugh and crow and stretch forth his arms that she might take him the in chief of the nurses was no ordinary female she was the widow of a poor � her name mistress � and she gratefully rejoiced to have had the happiness to fall into a place of such honour and responsibility she was of sober age and being as well as discreet kept such faithful watch over him as few children begin life under the figure of this good woman throughout his childhood stood out from among all others surrounding him with singular distinctness she seemed not like a servant nor was she like any other in the household as he in years he that in his earliest memories of her there was a recollection of a certain grave respect she had seemed to pay him and he saw it had been not mere deference but respect as though he had been a man in miniature and one to whom despite his tender youth dignity and reason should his grace of be qualities of nature and therefore might be demanded from him in all things as early as thought began to form itself clearly in him 