ide with you;
and now I will leave you together for awhile; for the Lady Mary would
ask you many things, and you will be courteous and tell her all." Then
he kissed his daughter, and led her to a chair before the table, and
motioned to Sir Hugh to be seated at the table-side; and then he went
out of the room in haste.

Then the Lady Mary began to speak in a low clear voice that had no
trembling in it; but her hands that were clasped together on the table
trembled; and Hugh took courage, and told her of the greatness of the
Earl and his high courage, praising him generously and nobly; he spoke
of the Earl's daughter, and of the kinsfolk that abode there; and of
the priest of the Castle, and of the knights; and of the Castle
itself, and its great woodland chase; and the Lady Mary heard him
attentively, her eyes fixed upon his face, and her lips parted. And
then she asked him one or two questions, but broke off, and said, "Sir
Hugh, you will know that all this is very new and strange to me; but
it is not the newness and strangeness that is most in my heart; but it
is the thought of what I leave behind, this house and my kin; and my
father who is above all things dear to me--for I know no other place
but this, and no other faces have I seen." Then Sir Hugh felt his
whole heart melted within him at the sight both of her grief and of
her high courage. And the thought that she should thus pass in all her
stainless grace to the harsh embrace of the old and grim Earl, came
like a horror into his heart; but he only said, "Lady, I have dwelt
all my life with the Earl and he has ever used me gently and
graciously, and he is as a father to me; I know that men fear him; yet
I can but say that he has a true heart full of wisdom and might." And
the Lady Mary smiled faintly, and said, "I will be sure it is so
indeed." And so she rose, and presently withdrew.

The day passed like a swift dream for Sir Hugh. He could think of
nothing but the Lady Mary, with a strange leaping of the heart; that
she was in the Castle above him, hidden somewhere like a flower in the
dark walls; that he would stand before her to plight his Lord's troth;
that he would ride with her through the forest; and that he would have
her near him through the months, when she was wedded to the Earl--all
this was a secret and urgent joy to him; not that he thought ever to
win her love--such a traitorous imagining never even crossed his
mind--but he thought that she woul