She checked herself, and he, of course, asked what she had meant to say, and insisted upon knowing. "The Queen could not know," she said at last, "that we should seem so strange to each other when we met." "Do I seem so strange to you?" he asked, in a sorrowful tone. "No," she answered, "it is the other way. I can see that you expected me to be very different." "Indeed, I did not," answered Gilbert, with some indignation. "At least," he added hastily, "if I thought anything about it, I did not expect that you would be half so pretty, or half--" "If you thought anything about it," laughed Beatrix, interrupting him. "You know what I mean," he said, justly annoyed by his own lack of tact. "Oh, yes; of course I do--that is the trouble." "If we are going to do nothing but quarrel," he said, "I am almost sorry that I came here." Again her tone changed, but this time she did not touch his hand. Hearing her voice, he expected that she would, and he was oddly disappointed that she did not. "Nothing could make me sorry that you found me," she answered. "You do not know how hard I have tried to see you all through this last year!" Her tone was tender and earnest, and though they had been long parted, she was nearer to him than he knew. His hand closed upon hers, and in the little thrill that he felt he forgot his disappointment. "Could you not send me any word?" he asked. "I am a prisoner," she answered, more than half in earnest. "It would be ill for you if the Queen found you here; but there is no danger, for they are all gone to the high mass in the cathedral." "And why are you left behind?" he asked. "They always say that I am not strong," she replied, "especially when there might be a possibility of your seeing me. She has never allowed me to be with all the others when the court is together, since I was brought over from England." "That is why I did not see you at Vezelay," he said, suddenly understanding. And with him to understand was to act. He might have had some difficulty in persuading himself at leisure that he was seriously in love with Beatrix, but being taken suddenly and unawares, he had not the slightest doubt as to what he ought to do. Before she could answer his last words, he had risen to his feet and was drawing her by the hand. "Come," he cried. "I can easily take you by the way I came. It is only a step, and in five minutes you shall be as free as I am!" But, to his great surprise, Beatrix seemed inclined to laugh at him. "Where should we go?" she asked, refusing to leave her seat. "We should be caught before we reached the city gates, and it would be the worse for us." "And who should dare touch us?" asked Gilbert, indignantly. "Who should dare to lay a hand on you?" "You are strong and brave," answered Beatrix, "but you are not an army, and the Queen--but you will not believe what I say."