queline paused. and for me-what should there be for me!"

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"Glory!" replied Jacqueline, throwing back her head and speaking in a tone of unconscious mock-heroic, that was irresistibly ludicrous:- Glory! I say," she repeated, “and honour, and high station, and riches."

“And all this,” inquired Rosamond with a smile that was slightly ironical, “is to be gained by marrying Sir Ranulph de Broc ?"

"Doubtless," responded Jacqueline; "at any rate, none of it, I suppose, would be gained by going back to Clairvaux.”

"Ah!" exclaimed Rosamond, with a shudder; "and yet one bondage is nearly as bad as another. Women are but slaves, after all."

"No! not slaves, but queens of slaves-queens of all the world! we are the main causes of wars and quarrels, and the rewards of the daring deeds that are done,” exclaimed Jacqueline, drawing up her little withered frame with a ridiculous assumption of dignity. Rosamond could not help

laughing outright at the words and gestures

of her nurse.

"I have never till now heard you thus eloquent, Jacqueline," said she; "of whom did you learn these grand thoughts and fine words?"

Now this was rather a cruel question, and Jacqueline did not mean to answer it. Few people like to be interrogated upon such subjects. Besides, the elevation and fervour of the waiting-woman not having yet subsided, she was scarcely in the humour to submit to a categorical examination; so she looked at her mistress with a cunning significance, but she did not speak.

"Well," resumed Rosamond, "I will not press my question; we must all keep our own secrets. Still I must add, that wisely as you discourse about the influence of our sex, I believe you to be utterly ignorant of the passion of love."

"Even so, and of a verity," responded Jacqueline;" and I thank Heaven, that I have not the smallest notion of what it is like."

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Methinks I know," murmured Rosa

mond slowly, and as if speaking to herself: "to love, is to hold some one so dear that nought on earth can bear comparison with him. It is at once to reverence and to admire; to worship, yet to cherish; to have with him one wish, one hope, one honour; and not to entertain even a thought in which he has no part. Would that the prior were here!" added she, in a louder

tone.

"Father Thomas cannot always be away from his monks," remarked Jacqueline; "it was but last week that he left the castle."

"He should have stayed," said Rosamond firmly. "His presence here is like water on the flame. Those wild men in my father's hall sometimes make me tremble; a word, a look, and their hands are on their swords. It was but yesternoon that Gilbert de Marsh defied John de Houton à l'outrance, for treading on the paw of his hound as it lay beneath the table."

"But my lord forbade the fight,” replied Jacqueline," and it was stopped."

"Yes but not forgotten," returned Rosamond. "Those two men, once dear friends, are now enemies for life. They will never

rest till their swords have drunk each other's blood."

They will follow my lord to Palestine," observed Jacqueline; "once in the Holy Land, they will find better work than killing each other."

"And why should not we also go to Palestine?" suggested Rosamond.

"Now Heaven forefend!" piously exclaimed Jacqueline. "Why we should be caught and devoured by the infidel dogs, or be sold for slaves. No, sweet lady, though I love glory passing well, it leads me not so far. If it were indeed to France, to my own fair Normandy, 't would be a different thing."

The recollection of home filled the eyes of Jacqueline with tears; and with less of her former flippancy, she added, “But that cannot be now, I know. We must have patience; we must wait for the marriage."

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'Marriage!" echoed Rosamond with a start, for her mind had wandered to other thoughts.

"Yes," returned Jacqueline;" and oh! sweet lady, look not so sad; Sir Ranulph is not a knight to frighten one. He is gentle

and kind, and never takes part in the rough broils of his companions, of whom not one can stand comparison with him. Dear lady! sweet child!" she added tenderly, as she saw an expression of pain in the countenance of Rosamond, "be of better cheer; take comfort to your heart; you will learn to love him."

"I will obey my father," said Rosamond calmly.

"That's right," exclaimed Jacqueline, my lord has been good to you--very good. Until now he was never known to change his mind; and certain it is, had he not done so we must have gone back to that wretched place, Clairvaux. I call all the saints to witness, that I had rather be in the hands of the fiercest Saracen than shut up in that dismal nunnery, where they change one's name, and bury one alive, and make one wear such a horrible dress. Ah!” she added, with a look of disgust, “I shudder when I think of that frightful hood and gorget."

In spite of the sadness of her heart, Rosamond could not suppress a laugh at the anti-climax uttered by Jacqueline, in whose