"Madame," he said with a sudden chill hauteur, "you come from far and
do not know. No Douglas has ever been afraid throughout all their
generations."

The lady turned upon him with a sweet and moving smile. She held out
her fair hand.

"Pardon--nay, a thousand pardons. I knew not what I said. I am not
acquainted with your Scottish speech nor yet with your Scottish
customs. Do not be angry with me; I am a stranger, young, far from my
own people and my own land. Think me foolish for speaking thus freely
if you like, but not wilfully unkind."

And when the Earl looked at her, there were tears glittering in her
beautiful eyes.

"I _will_ go to Edinburgh," he cried. "I am the Douglas. The Tutor and
the Chancellor are but as two straws in my hand, a longer and a
shorter. I fling them from me--thus!"

The Lady Sybilla clapped her hands joyously and turned towards the
young man. "Will you indeed go with me?" she cried. "Will you truly? I
could kiss your hand, my Lord Douglas, you make me so glad."

"Your kiss will keep," said the Earl, with a quiet passion quivering
in his voice.

"Nay, I meant it not thus--not as you mean it. I knew not what I said.
But it will indeed change all things for me if you do but come. Then I
shall have some one to speak with--some one with whom to laugh at