dull patience needed with steady toil and
strain of memory, no single fact could by any driving be fixed in her
mind. Alleyne might talk to her of the stories of old gods and heroes,
of gallant deeds and lofty aims, or he might hold forth upon moon and
stars, and let his fancy wander over the hidden secrets of the universe,
and he would have a rapt listener with flushed cheeks and eloquent eyes,
who could repeat after him the very words which had fallen from his
lips. But when it came to almagest and astrolabe, the counting of
figures and reckoning of epicycles, away would go her thoughts to horse
and hound, and a vacant eye and listless face would warn the teacher
that he had lost his hold upon his scholar. Then he had but to bring out
the old romance book from the priory, with befingered cover of sheepskin
and gold letters upon a purple ground, to entice her wayward mind back
to the paths of learning.

At times, too, when the wild fit was upon her, she would break into
pertness and rebel openly against Alleyne's gentle firmness. Yet he
would jog quietly on with his teachings, taking no heed to her mutiny,
until suddenly she would be conquered by his patience, and break into
self-revilings a hundred times stronger than her fault demanded. It
chanced however that, on one of these mornings when the evil mood was
upon her, Agatha the young tire-woman, thinking to please her mistress,
began also to toss her head and make tart rejoinder to the teacher's
questions. In an instant the Lady Maude had turned upon her two blazing
eyes and a face which was blanched with anger.

"You would dare!" said she. "You would dare!" The frightened tire-woman
tried to excuse herself. "But my fair lady," she stammered, "what have I
done? I have said no more than I heard."

"You would dare!" repeated the lady in a choking voice. "You, a
graceless baggage, a foolish lack-brain, with no thought above the
hemming of shifts. And he so kindly and hendy and long-suffering! You
would--ha, you may well flee the room!"

She had spoken with a rising voice, and a clasping and opening of her
long white fingers, so that it was no marvel that ere the speech was
over the skirts of Agatha were whisking round the door and the click of
her sobs to be heard dying swiftly away down the corridor.

Alleyne stared open-eyed at this tigress who had sprung so suddenly
to his rescue. "There is no need for such anger," he said mildly. "The
maid's words have done m