"
I spread its mate out upon my palm. "A woman's hand. Too white,
too soft, and too small."
He touched lightly, one by one, the slender fingers of the glove he
held. "A woman's hand, - strength in weakness, veiled power, the
star in the mist, guiding, beckoning, drawing upward!"
I laughed and threw the glove from me. "The star, a
will-of-the-wisp; the goal, a slough," I said.
As he sat opposite me a change came over his face, a change so
great that I knew before I turned that she was in the room.
The bundle which I had carried for her from Jamestown was
neither small nor light. Why, when she fled, she chose to burden
herself with such toys, or whether she gave a thought to the
suspicions that might be raised in Virginia if one of Sir Edwyn's
maids bedecked herself in silk and lace and jewels, I do not know,
but she had brought to the forest and the tobacco fields the gauds
of a maid of honor. The Puritan dress in which I first saw her was
a thing of the past; she clothed herself now like the parrakeets in
the forest, - or liker the lilies of the field, for verily she toiled not,
neither did she spin.
Rolfe and I rose from our seats. "Mistress Percy," I said, "let me
present to you a right worthy gentleman and my very good friend,
Master John Rolfe."
She curtsied, and he bowed low. He was a man of quick wit and
had been at court, but for a time he could find no words.
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