“Well, love him as much as you please, but do it in silence, and tell him not of it; but teach your love resignation.”
“John, he knows it already.”
“Ah, poor princess! you are still but a child, that sticks its hands in the fire with smiling bravery and scorches them, because it knows not that fire burns.”
“Let it burn, John, burn! and let the flames curl over my head! Better be consumed in fire than perish slowly and horribly with a deadly chill! I love him, I tell you, and he already knows it!”
“Well, then, love him, but, at least, do not marry him!” cried John Heywood, surlily.
“Marry!” cried she, with astonishment. “Marry! I had never thought of it.”
She dropped her head upon her breast, and stood there, silent and thoughtful.
“I am much afraid I made a blunder, then!” muttered John Heywood. “I have suggested a new thought to her. Ah, ah, King Henry has done well in appointing me his fool! Just when we deem ourselves the wisest, we are the greatest fools!”
“John,” said Elizabeth, as she raised her head again and smiled to him in a glow of excitement, “John, you are entirely right; if we love, we must marry.”
“But I said just the contrary, princess!”