It was neither cold nor
hot, but very quiet, and the birds went by like shadows, - a listless
and forgetful weather, in which we began to look, every hour of
every day, for the sail which we knew we should not see for weeks
to come.
Good Master Bucke tarried with Master Thorpe at Henricus,
recruiting his strength, and Jeremy Sparrow preached in his pulpit,
slept in his chamber, and worked in his garden. This garden ran
down to the green bank of the river; and here, sitting idly by the
stream, her chin in her hand and her dark eyes watching the strong,
free sea birds as they came and went, I found my wife one evening,
as I came from the fort, where had been some martial exercise.
Thirty feet away Master Jeremy Sparrow worked among the dying
flowers, and hummed: -
"There is a garden in her face,
Where roses and white lilies grow."
He and I had agreed that when I must needs be absent he should
be within call of her; for I believed my Lord Carnal very capable
of intruding himself into her presence. That house and garden, her
movements and mine, were spied upon by his foreign hirelings, I
knew perfectly well.
As I sat down upon the bank at her feet, she turned to me with a
sudden passion. "I am weary of it all!" she cried. "I am tired of
being pent up in this house and garden, and of the watch you keep
upon me.
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