“You will fall if we give you time,” he said.
“To the King’s level?” she asked, slyly, then answered herself: “Mayhap.”
Thus they stood like knights after the first tilt. Charles looked up at Nell, and Nell looked down at Charles. There was a moment’s silence. Nell broke it.
“I am surprised you happen this way, Sire.”
“With such eyes to lure me?” asked the King, and he asked earnestly too.
“Tush,” answered Nell, coyly, “your tongue will lead you to perdition, Sire.”
“No fear!” replied he, dryly. “I knelt in church with brother James but yesterday.”
“In sooth, quite true!” said Nell, approvingly, as she leaned back against the door and raised her eyes innocently toward the moon. “I sat in the next pew, Sire, afraid to move for fear I might awake your Majesty.”
The King chuckled softly to himself. Nell picked one of the flowers that grew upon the balustrade.
“Ah, you come a long-forgotten path to-night,” she said abruptly.