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Thereupon she took up my right hand and pressed it for a moment to her lips.

'You are a heroine,' she said, 'and I admire and love you.'

'Indeed it was nothing,' I rejoined; 'moreover I was powerless to avert their cruel death,' and the tears rose to my eyes as I thought of what those poor old women endured.

But Lady Caroline, stooping over me, kissed my tears away.

'You did your best,' she said, 'and may well trust that the good God would receive them through that painful—if haply short—gate into His glorious kingdom.'

She was silent for a moment or two, and my heart warmed to her, for I recognized that she loved Him whom I served, and thought not small things of Him, but the very best.

Then she began again—

'They were taken away from the evil, and your precious life was saved for further and it may be greater work. You are going, I hear, to attend the noble lady who has married Guildford Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland's fourth son?'

'Yes,' replied I, 'Lady Jane Grey, to call her by her maiden name. Do you know aught about her, Lady Caroline?' and there was some anxiety in my tone, for indeed it mattered much to me what sort of a lady that was to whom I was making so long and hazardous a journey.