"They're young," answered Rolfe; "their hearts will mend, have no fear, Mary."
CHAPTER XVI
Under the Shadow of Newgate
"Let Mistress Patience know that I am waiting to receive her," said Queen Henrietta Maria, as she sat before her dressing-table, the barber being engaged in the dressing of her hair.
She was no longer the beautiful Henrietta Maria who had come to England as the bride of Charles I. Trouble had told upon her and aged her even before her time, and we find her spoken of in the chronicles as a "little old woman". And yet she was not more than fifty-six years of age; but she had grown crusty, and evil-tempered, jealous of those who were younger than herself, and nothing ages a woman like jealousy and spite. A kindly, loving heart softens away the hard lines and keeps the face young because of the love which dwells in the heart; but where there is no love, there is no youth.
She had hardly given the order when the door was thrown open and the usher announced: "Madam Patience Beaumont and the Lady Agnes De Lisle."
The queen turned sharply round, despite her barber's exclamation of despair, and the tired face brightened up. "At last, you truants!" she exclaimed, as Patience hurried forward, knelt, and kissed the extended hand. The queen's eyes passed over her and rested on Agnes: "Verily a beauty!" she whispered. "Well, ma mie," she said aloud, as Agnes approached her, "have you quite forgotten your queen-mother?"
"I have not forgotten her at all, your majesty," answered Agnes, as she followed her aunt's example, knelt, and kissed the royal hand; but Henrietta lifted her face between her hands and looked at her, tears filling her eyes.
"Patience," she said, "she is the most beautiful thing I have seen for many a day; she is father and mother welded together. Is she as good as she is beautiful?"
"Ah, Madam, who can tell?" answered Patience; "she is very young, and has not been tempted."