"Jesu Maria!" laughed the Queen, clapping her white hands; "have you lost your tongue?"
"Nay, madame—my heart!"
"That is very serious—but search for another, Monseigneur Bothwell."
The voice of the Earl trembled as he replied, "I want no other but—thine!"
At this daring avowal, a blush crossed the queen's cheek; but, supposing that the Earl was merely pursuing a jocular strain of gallantly, she replied—
"Oh fie! remember, Lord Earl, that at Versailles, the old hunting-lodge of Francis I. (all that is long—oh! very long—ago), thou didst taunt me with being without a heart."
"I did, as I now remember me," said Bothwell, over whose brow a shadow passed. "That was ere your grace became Dauphiness—yet it seems as if 'twere yesterday. But you have a heart, madame—one that is warm, affectionate, and well worth the winning."
"Well!" replied Mary, rising with a cold and haughty smile, as she thought of Darnley; "it is already lost and won."
"By one who appreciates its value?"
The queen gave him a glance full of reproach, for she felt all the taunt contained in the quiet query.