Sholto blushed and muttered that he had forgotten it at home. He was
all of a breaking perspiration lest he should have to tell the Earl
that he had given it to Maud Lindesay, as indeed he meant to do
presently, along with the golden buckle of archery,--that is if the
dainty, mischievous-hearted maiden could be persuaded to accept
thereof.

"Ah," said the Earl, smiling, "I comprehend. There is some maid in the
question, and if I advance you to the command of my house-guard and
give you an officer's responsibility, you will of a surety be ever
desiring to go gadding to the greenwood--and around the loch of
Carlinwark are most truly dangerous glades."

"Nay, indeed nay," cried Sholto, eagerly. "If it is my lord's will to
appoint me to his guard, by Saint Bride and all the other saints I
swear never to leave the island, unless it be sometimes of a Sunday
afternoon for an hour or two--just to see my mother."

"Your mother!" quoth the Earl, laughing heartily. "So then my two
golden hearts are in your mother's keeping. Art a good lad, Sholto,
and as for guile it is simply not in thee!"

Sholto looked modestly down upon the earth, as if conscious of his own
exceeding merits, but willing for the nonce to say nothing about them.
But the young Earl came over to him, and dealing him a sound buffet on
the back, cried: "Nay, lad, that lamb-like look I have seen tried on
mine uncle the Abbot of Sweetheart. Thy brother Laurence is in the way
of clerkly advancement on account of that same sweetly innocent
regard, which he hath in even greater perfection. But I am a young
man, remember--and one youth flings not glamour easily into the eyes