And if I go abroad, it is worse! I hate all those shameless
faces that stare at me as if I were in the pillory. I am pilloried
before you all, and I find the experience sufficiently bitter. And
when I think that that man whom I hate, hate, hate, breathes the air
that I breathe, it stifles me! If I could fly away like those birds, if I
could only be gone from this place for even a day!"
"I would beg leave to take you home, to Weyanoke," I said after a
pause, "but I cannot go and leave the field to him."
"And I cannot go," she answered. "I must watch for that ship and
that King's command that my Lord Carnal thinks potent enough to
make me his wife. King's commands are strong, but a woman's will
is stronger. At the last I shall know what to do. But now why may I
not take Angela and cross that strip of sand and go into the woods
on the other side? They are so fair and strange, - all red and
yellow, - and they look very still and peaceful. I could walk in
them, or lie down under the trees and forget awhile, and they are
not at all far away." She looked at me eagerly.
"You could not go alone," I told her. "There would be danger in
that. But to-morrow, if you choose, I and Master Sparrow and
Diccon will take you there. A day in the woods is pleasant enough,
and will do none of us harm. Then you may wander as you please,
fill your arms with colored leaves, and forget the world.
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