The parties arranged themselves, as it were instinctively, on the different sides of the lofty apartments, and seemed eager to escape from the transient union which the narrowness of the crowded entrance had for an instant compelled them to submit to.

The folding doors at the upper end of the long gallery were immediately afterwards opened, and it was announced in a whisper that the Queen was in her presence-chamber, to which these gave access.

Both Earls moved slowly and stately towards the entrance--Sussex followed by Tressilian, Blount, and Raleigh, and Leicester by Varney.

The pride of Leicester was obliged to give way to court-forms, and with a grave and formal inclination of the head, he paused until his rival, a peer of older creation than his own, passed before him.

Sussex returned the reverence with the same formal civility, and entered the presence-room.