"No, madam," replied Bothwell, with a reddening cheek; "the verity is—she still—the reason—your majesty will excuse, but I am bidden to bear her dutiful commendations to your grace. I left her at my house of Bothwell."
"Ah!—in your hurry to attend our summons?"
"Exactly so—please your grace."
"My grace is much indebted to the loyalty that could so far master love as to leave the bride of a few months. Men say she is very beautiful."
"And women deny it," added the flippant Darnley; "the best proof that the men are right."
Bothwell, who seemed wholly intent in gazing on Mary, when she did not perceive him, looked as if he cared very little about it.
"And men say, too," added the gay King, "that, natheless his marriage, the Lord Bothwell is not likely to become a Carthusian"——
"Any more than King Henry," retorted the Earl, with a haughty smile. "Oh, no!—I have still a dash of the gallant left in me."
"And a wish to assist honest burghers in their conjugal duties"——
"Being, like your majesty, somewhat neglectful of my own," added the Earl, in a low voice.