Farewell, Earl of Surrey; I
leave you and your palace, and will from this hour out abide with my
mother. the divorced wife of the Duke of Norfolk. But mark you this:
we two are separated from you in our love--but not in our hate! Our
hatred to you remains eternal and unchangeable; and one day it will
crush you! Farewell, Earl of Surrey; we meet again in the king's
presence!"
She rushed to the door. Henry Howard did not hold her back. He
looked after her with a smile as she left the cabinet, and murmured,
almost compassionately: "Poor woman! I have, perhaps, cheated her
out of a lover, and she will never forgive me that. Well, let it be
so! Let her, as much as she pleases, be my enemy, and torment me
with petty pin-prickings, if she be but unable to harm her. I hope,
though, that I have guarded well my secret, and she could not
suspect the real cause of my refusal. Ah, I was obliged to wrap
myself in that foolish family pride, and make haughtiness a cloak
for my love. Oh, Geraldine, thee would I choose, wert thou the
daughter of a peasant; and I would not hold my escutcheon tarnished,
if for thy sake I must draw a pale athwart it.--But hark! It is
striking four! My service begins! Farewell, Geraldine, I must to the
queen!"
And while he betook himself to his dressing-room, to put on his
state robes for the great court feast, the Duchess of Richmond
returned to her own apartments, trembling and quivering with rage.
She traversed these with precipitate haste, and entered her boudoir,
where Earl Douglas was waiting for her.
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