"Nay, I thank you, good Dame Barbara," said the Earl, very courteously
taking off the close-fitting black cap with the red feather in it
which was upon his head. "I must bide but a moment for your husband to
set right certain nails in the hoofs of Darnaway here, to ready me for
the morrow. Do you come to see the sport? So buxom a dame as the
mistress of Carlinwark should not be absent to encourage the lads to
do their best at the sword-play and the rivalry of the butts."

And as the dame came forth courtesying and bowing her delighted
thanks, Earl William, setting a forefinger under her triple chin,
stooped and kissed her in his gayest and most debonair manner.

"Eh, only to think on't," cried the dame, clapping her hands together
as she did at mass, "that I, Barbara MacKim, that am marriet to a
donnert auld carle like Malise there, should hae the privileege o' a
salute frae the bonny mou' o' Yerl William--(Thank ye kindly, my
lord!)--and be inveeted to the weepen-shawing to sit amang the leddies
and view the sport. Malise, my man, caa' ye no that an honour, a
privileege? Is that no owing to me being the sister--on my faither's
side--o' Ninian Halliburton, merchant and indweller in Dumfries?"

"Nay, nay, good dame," laughed the Earl, "'tis all for the sake of
your own very sufficient charms! I trust that your good man here is
not jealous, for beauty, you well do ken, ever sends the wits of a
Douglas woolgathering. Nevertheless, let us have a draught of your
home-brewed ale, for kissing is but dry work, after all, and little do
I think of it save" (he set his cap on his head with a gallant wave of
his hand) "in the case of a lady so fair and tempting as Dame Barbara
MacKim!"