"Come home with me and I'll tell you all about it." They took Nell's barge and went to Westminster water stairs, where they walked across the park to her house in Pell Mell.
Frances cordially hated Lady Castlemain and the king's other brazen friends, but, after having met Nelly several times, she had learned to love the sweet, profane, ignorant girl because, despite her apparently evil life, there was honesty, kindliness, and truth in Nelly's heart.
When the two young women were seated in Nelly's cozy parlor, she began to open her heart to Frances.
"Yes, the king told me how he invited you to go to the garden with him one evening, and how he dubbed you 'Little Solomon' when you refused." "Ah, did he ?" asked Frances, surprised at the king's willingness to speak of his rebuff.
"Yes," returned Nelly, surprising Frances still further by a soberness of manner rarely seen in the laughing girl.
After a long pause, Nelly continued: "Do you know, I hate the fat Castlemain woman.

And the bow-legged Stuart hussy! She seems to be proud of her crooked shanks and exhibits them on every possible occasion.

There is something about extreme ugliness that drives it to exposure, on the principle, I suppose, that murder will out.

And there's ugly Wells! I hate her, too! Her charm, like that of the Puritan's face, lies wholly in her damned ugliness.

I hate them all, though I do not fear them, but oh, Mistress Jennings--" Here she leaned forward and grasped Frances's wrist almost fiercely, "The human heart is a strange thing, at least mine is, for I love you, but oh, I fear you!" "No, no," cried Frances, at a loss just what to say.
"Yes," continued Nell, insistently.