n her smile.

"You can have your will even now," she said, "for I spy my prisoner
coming here--and reading, too."

Sir Blaise swung round upon his heels and stared in the direction
indicated by Brilliana. He saw Evander, black against the sunlit
trees, the sunlit grasses, and he smiled derisively. He was very
confident that there was no courage as there could be no wit in any
Puritan. These things were the privileges of Cavaliers.

"His brains are buried in his book," he sneered. "If a stone came in
his way now he would stumble over it, he's so deep in his sour
studies. 'Tis some ponderous piece of divinity, I'll wager, levelled
against kings."

He thought he was speaking low to his companion, but his was not a
voice of musical softness, and its tones jarred the quiet air.
Evander caught the sound of it, lifted his head, and, looking before
him over his book, saw in the yew haven Brilliana seated and a
gaudy-coated gentleman standing by her side. He was immediately for
turning and hastening in another direction, but Brilliana, for all
she hated him, would not now have it so. Perhaps she had been piqued
by Sir Blaise's too confident assumption of superiority to the
judgment of her people; perhaps she thought it might divert her to
see Puritan and Cavalier face each other before her in the shadowed
circle of yews. Whatever her reason, she raised her hand and raised
her voice to stay Evander's purpose.

"Sir, sir!" she cried. "Mr. Cloud, by your leave, I would have you
come hither. Do not turn aside."

Thus summoned, Evander walked with slightly quickened pace to the
place where Brilliana sat and saluted her with formal courtesy.

"I cry your pardon," he declared. "I would not intrude on your quiet,
but I read and walked unconscious that there was company among the
yews."

Brilliana answered him with the dignity of a gracious and benevolent
queen.

"Do not withdraw, sir; you have the liberty of Loyalty House, and I
would not have you avoid any part of its gardens."

Evander bowed. Sir Blaise broke into a horse-laugh which grated more
on Brilliana's ears than on Evander's. Brilliana was at heart rather
angry that for once Puritan should show better than Cavalier.

"You are a vastly happy jack to be used so gently," he bellowed.
"Some would have stuck such a hostage in a garret and done well
enough."

Evander still kept his eyes fixed on the lady of the house and seemed
to have no ears for the jeering Cavali