How happy they both were! Henry had wholly forgotten that he had come to reproach her for her long silence; she did not think about this being the last time she might see her lover.
They were with each other, and this hour was theirs. What did the whole world matter to them? What cared they whether or not mischief and ruin threatened them hereafter?
They sat by each other on the divan, quite near the boudoir. They jested and laughed; and Henry Howard kissed away the tears that the happiness of the present caused his Geraldine to shed.
He swore to her eternal and unchanging love. In blissful silence she drank in the music of his words; and then she reiterated, with jubilant joy, his vows of love.
The king could scarcely restrain his fury.
The heart of Earl Douglas leaped with satisfaction and gratification. “A lucky thing that Jane has no suspicion of our presence,” thought he—“otherwise she would have been less unrestrained and ardent, and the king’s ear would have imbibed less poison.”
Lady Jane thought not at all of her father; she scarcely remembered that this very night would destroy her hated rival the queen.
Henry Howard had called her his Geraldine only. Jane had entirely forgot that it was not she to whom her lover had given this name.
But he himself finally reminded her of it.
“Do you know, Geraldine,” said Earl Surrey—and his voice, which had been hitherto so cheerful and sprightly, was now sad—“do you know, Geraldine, that I have had doubts of you? Oh, those were frightful, horrible hours; and in the agony of my heart I came at last to the resolution of going to the king and accusing myself of this love that was consuming my heart. Oh, fear naught! I would not have accused you. I would have even denied that love which you have so often and with such transporting reality sworn to me. I would have done it in order to see whether my Geraldine could at last gain courage and strength to lover. He saw how he pressed her hands to his lips; how he put his hand to her head to raise it from the floor.”