Anthony irresistibly threw his hands out as he knelt.
“Oh! God bless your Grace!” he said; and then gave a sob or two himself.
“There, there, you are a pair of children,” she said; for Mary was kissing her hand again and again. “And you are a pretty pair, too,” she added. “Now, now, that is enough, stand up.”
Anthony rose to his feet again and stood there; and Mary went round again behind the chair.
“Now, now, you have put me in a sore strait,” said Elizabeth; “between you I scarcely know how to keep my word. They call me fickle enough already. But Frank Walsingham shall do it for me. He is certainly at the back of it all, and he shall manage it. It shall be done at once. Call a page, Minnie.”
Mary Corbet went to the back of the room into the shadow, opened a door that Anthony had not noticed, and beckoned sharply; in a moment or two a page was bowing before Elizabeth.
“Is Sir Francis Walsingham in the palace?” she asked,—“then bring him here,” she ended, as the boy bowed again.
“And you too,” she went on, “shall hear that I keep my word,”—she pointed towards the door whence the page had come.—“Stand there,” she said, “and leave the door ajar.”
Mary gave Anthony her hand and a radiant smile as they went together.
“Aha!” said Elizabeth, “not in my presence.”