As Katherine entered the silent square, she paused for a moment a
few paces from the church, and turning, looked at her silent
follower.
"Why do you follow me?" she asked, and Noel le Jolys, who had dogged
her footsteps from the palace, answered her briskly:
"You should not walk unguarded. Therefore I shadow you."
Katherine scorned him.
"You may well play the shadow, for you cast no shadow of your own.
The streets are very idle--the streets are very quiet. I would
sooner have my loneliness than your company. Let me pass to my
prayers." For Noel had glided between her and the church, and stood
barring her passage deferentially.
"For your lover?" he asked, and Katherine flashed at him:
"You have a small mind to ask, yet I have a great mind to answer. My
prayers are for a brave gentleman whom I shall never see again."
As she spoke, the cup of her heart seemed to run over with red
tears, and the bitter waters trembled in her eyes. Her thoughts
wandered over the long white night and her sleepless sorrow, and her
vigil by the window, looking out into the rose garden, and her tired
eyes straining in vain through the dark for any sight, and her tired
ears straining in vain for any sound of the battle in which the lord
of her heart was risking his life.
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