way in which he had ta'en my little lady's hand
at their first meeting, and he saith, "Comrade, for thou hast e'er been
my true and loyal comrade, Marian--sweet comrade-cousin--this is the
matter that doth eat my heart. Dost think there is aught between
Patience and that young coxcomb?"

There came a red mark all across her brow, as though he had smitten her,
for with her sudden movement her hat had fallen upon the ground at her
feet. And she put up her hand to her side as if in pain, but snatched it
back quickly. And for one heart-beat she shut her eyes. My lord, who had
stooped forward to lift her hat, saw none o' this, and when the hat was
again upon her brow and its shadow over her face, she seemed the same as
ever. But I knew the shaft was in her heart, and my heart seemed to feel
it, for I loved her dearly. When he could wait no longer, he said,
"Well, comrade?"

And she spoke, for from the hair that crowned her to the feet that
carried her she was as brave as any Cavalier that ever swung sword for
the King, and she said, "Well indeed, cousin, for thee."

He said, "How dost thou mean for me?"

Then stooped she and gathered a handful of grass, and held it aloft and
opened her hand, palm downward, that the falling blades were blown this
way and that by the wind.

"I mean," quoth she, "that Rowland Nasmyth is no more to Patience
than--I am to thee." And she laughed a little.

He came closer to her, and laid his arm about her shoulders, drawing her
to him, and he said, "Nay, thou knowest how dear thou art to me,
comrade; but thou meanest in different wise--is't so?"

She said, "Yea; but call me Marian to-day. It is to my whim."

He answered, "Dear Marian," and would have kissed her cheek, but she
started up with a little cry, saying, "By'r lay'kin! there was a
honey-bee tangled in my locks."

And when he had sought for the bee to kill it with his hat, but could
not find it, they did seat themselves again, he laughing and saying that
"the bee was a bee o' much discretion and wondrous good taste."

That night when I crept to my little ladies to see that all was quiet,
I, pausing in the door-way, did note them as they lay--my little lady
with her head on Mistress Marian's breast, and a smile on her lips, and
Mistress Marian with her arms wrapped close about her, and her dark hair
swept out over the pillow, and thence to the floor, like a stream o'
water that reflects a black cloud, but her eyes wide open, look