In startled wonder Christine glanced at her.
Then spake the Queen: "Do maids thus early rise
To tend their household duties, or to feed
The doves, relinquishing sleep's precious hours
To see the morning dew upon the flowers
And what frail blooms have perished 'neath the moon?
To reach the Grey Nun's Walk, mayhap you speed--
To count the stricken buds of lilies strewn
O'ernight upon the soil by careless feet
That wandered there so late? Yea, now I know,