"In youth we make chance
friendships thick as May, but manhood weeds the garden!
And yet we think it possible that this man may in his heart
trade on old things and make his way to you or send you
appeal." She paused, then said in a quiet voice, "Should
that happen, Don Enrique, on your allegiance, and as a
good Christian, you will do all that you can to put him in
the hands of the Holy Office."
She waited with her blue eyes upon him. He said, and
said quietly, "It was long ago, Madam, when I was a young
man and careless. I will do all that lies in me to do. But
Spain is wide and there are ships to Africa and other shores."
She said, "Yes, I do not see such an one daring to come
to Santa Fe! But they say that ten demons possess a
heretic, and that he crosses streams upon a hair or walks
edges of high walls."
With her ringed hand she made gesture of dismissal. He
bowed low and stepped back to his former place.
The sun flooded in at window. Manuel Rodriguez painted
steadily. The Queen sat still, with lifted face and eyes
strained into distance. She sighed and came back from
wastes where she would be Christian, oh, where she would
be Christian! and began with a tender, maternal look to talk
with her daughter.
CHAPTER VI
THE door giving upon the great corridor opened. One
said, "The King, Madam!" King Ferdinand entered
quietly, in the sober fashion of a sober and able man.
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