The strange lady gazed at her sadly.
"Ten years have changed you to beauty and me to age, Highness," she said, in a voice of singular sweetness. "You have forgotten me. And I should scarcely have known Your Highness."
"Indeed," answered Mary, a little bewildered, "I cannot recall you. But I do perceive that you are my countrywoman; perhaps I knew you at Whitehall?"
"It was there we met, Madam,—and of late we have corresponded——"
"Why, who are you, Madam?"
The elder lady cast herself to her knees before the Princess, and answered with some wildness—
"I am the unfortunate wife of my Lord Sunderland!"
"My Lady Sunderland! Madam, you must not kneel. Oh, what hath passed in England to bring you here?"
Mary impetuously raised the Countess, who kissed her hands in a kind of frantic entreaty.
"Where is the Earl?" cried Mary, with a flush of agitation.