"Pshaw!" muttered Sholto, "my lord said naught of the sort."

"Well then," said Maud Lindesay, smiling down upon him with an
expression innocent and sweet as that of an angel on a painted
ceiling, "you will be kind and come and help us all the same?"

"That I will not!" said Sholto, stamping his foot like an ill-tempered
boy.

"Yes, you will--because Margaret asks you?"

_"I will not!"_

"Then because _I_ ask you?"

Spite of his best endeavours, Sholto could not take his eyes from the
girl's face, which seemed fairer and more desirable to him now than
ever. A quick sob of passion shook him, and he found words at last:

"Oh, Maud Lindesay, why do you treat thus one who loves you with all
his heart?"

The girl's face changed. The mischief died out of it, and something
vague and soft welled up in her eyes, making them mistily grey and
lustrous. But she only said: "Sholto, it is growing dark already! It
is time the tapers were trimmed!"

Then Sholto followed her up the stairs, and though I do not know,
there is some reason for thinking that he forgave her all her