quite gone--for she answered to the Countess's call, and permitted De
Lacy to put a strap around her neck and make her captive.

As they crossed the drawbridge the Duke of Gloucester was standing near
the gate tower and he called Lord Darby to him--and Dacre offering to
take Wilda to the stables, Sir Aymer and the Countess were left to go
on alone to the keep. As they drew up at the entrance, and the
Countess shifted position in the saddle, she dropped her kerchief; De
Lacy secured it and put it in his doublet, then reached up to lift her
down.

She shook her head.

"The kerchief first," she said, with calm finality.

There was no mistaking the tone, and without a word he gave it to her.
She slowly tucked it in her bodice, looking the while toward the gate.

"I thought Lord Darby was to put me down," she said, and giving De Lacy
a dazzling smile--"but if you care to act as his substitute, I suppose
you may. . . Good-bye, Selim." She gathered up her skirt and moved
toward the steps. On the bottom one she turned. "Do you not think,
Sir Aymer, it is about time for you to be presented?" she asked--then
ran quickly up the stairs and through the doorway.




V