Then the door closed, and he heard the click of the lock as the bolts
were shot from within. The gallery ran round and round about him like
a clacking wheel. His heart beat tumultuously, and there was a strange
humming sound in his ears.

The captain of the guard stumbled half distracted down the turret
stair.

The old world had been destroyed in a moment and he was walking in a
new, where perpetual roses bloomed and the spring birds sang for
evermore. He knew not, this poor foolish Sholto, that he had much to
learn ere he should know all the tricks and stratagems of this most
naughty and prettily disdainful minx, Mistress Maud Lindesay.

But for that night at least he thought he knew her heart and soul,
which made him just as happy.




CHAPTER XVIII

THE MORNING LIGHT


In the morning Sholto MacKim had other views of it. Even when at last
he was relieved from duty he never closed an eye. The blowing out of
the lamp had turned his ideas and hopes all topsy-turvy. His heart
sang loud and turbulent within him. He had kissed other girls indeed
before at kirns and country dances. He laughed triumphantly within him