“Your majesty but jests with me,” said Jane Seymour. “Jests!” cried Henry passionately. “By my faith! I never understood the power of beauty till now. No charms ever moved my heart like yours; nor shall I know a moment's peace till you become mine.”
“I am grieved to hear it, my liege,” replied Jane Seymour, “for I never can be yours, unless as your queen.”
Again Norris hazarded a whisper to Anne Boleyn, which was answered by another nervous grasp of the hand.
“That is as much as to say,” pursued Jane, seeing the gloomy reverie into which her royal lover was thrown, “I can give your majesty no hopes at all.”
“You have been schooled by Anne Boleyn, sweetheart,” said Henry.
“How so, my liege?” demanded Jane Seymour.
“Those are the very words she used to me when I wooed her, and which induced me to divorce Catherine of Arragon,” replied Henry. “Now they may bring about her own removal.”
“Just Heaven!” murmured Anne.
“I dare not listen to your majesty,” said Jane Seymour, in a tremulous tone; “and yet, if I dared speak—”
“Speak on, fearlessly, sweetheart,” said Henry.