Drawn by some impulse, I moved towards her.

She was unconscious of my approach until I came quite near to her; then she turned on me a face stained with tears and pale with agitation and alarm.

I stood before her, speechless, and she found no words in which to address me.

I was too proud to force my company on her, and made as though to pass with a bow; but her face arrested me.
"What ails you, Mistress Barbara ?" I cried impetuously.

She smoothed her face to composure as she answered me: "Nothing, sir." Then she added carelessly, "Unless it be that sometimes the King's conversation is too free for my liking." "When you want me, I'm here," I said, answering not her words but the frightened look that there was in her eyes.
For an instant I seemed to see in her an impulse to trust me and to lay bare what troubled her.