Once more the tears gathered in her eyes; but they did not fall, for coming towards them was Reginald Newbolt.
He made them a deep bow, his plumed hat sweeping the ground, and his young handsome face alight with kindly sympathy. He saw the tears in Agnes's eyes, but taking no note of them, said:
"My mother has sent me to ask you on this lovely day to go with her in our barge to the park at Greenwich, which adjoins the palace. It is well in the country, and the air is fresher there than it is here in the city. You must come, because my mother so seldom proposes anything approaching a diversion. I have not known her go beyond the precincts of her own home for years. I think, Mistress Agnes, you have thrown your spell upon her."
Agnes blushed. "I should like to go," she said. "Can we, Patience?"
"Why not?" was the quiet answer, for Patience knew that Mistress Newbolt had conceived this plan to divert Agnes from her sadness.
"Yes, we will go," she said. "Where is the barge?"
"At London Bridge. You can use your own till you get there, then you will use ours. Ann and mother will be waiting for us."
A barge not unlike a Venetian gondola always stood moored to the steps leading down from the terrace to the water's edge, so they had not far to go. The distance to London Bridge was but short, and during the journey to Greenwich Agnes found herself made much of, not allowed to grieve or feel herself alone. She was verily a spoilt child, and whilst Patience and Mistress Newbolt sat beneath the trees in the Park, Agnes, Reginald, and Ann wandered into the quaint old garden of the palace known as "The Queen's House", filled with all the blossoms of summer, scented with great bunches of lavender and sweet marjoram. As they strolled about there the strength of her youth overcame the sorrow of her heart, and the great world in which Agnes had lived so lonely, fine gentlemen and ladies, valets and maid-servants, all those accessories to court life, seemed to drop away from her as useless and cumbersome. The sweetness and simplicity of nature, as she had never known it before, crept over her. She had lived all her life in palaces surrounded by etiquette, now for the first time in her life she walked with quiet folk, with neither queens nor princesses, only with this simple maiden Ann and this young man, who, notwithstanding his military attire, was so easy and kindly of manner that she had no fear of him. To divert her thoughts Reginald and his sister talked to her about things of which she knew little--the country, the flowers. They told her, too, of Newbolt Manor, and how pleasant it was up in the bonnie north.
"But you have not always dwelt there?" said Agnes.
"No," answered Ann, "we are new people. Cromwell gave it to my father for his services. One thing comforts me," continued Ann, "we have turned no one out, for there was no heir; the last owner was killed fighting for King Charles."