own desire?" she said, looking down at them like a douce barn-door fowl
who by chance has reared a pair of eaglets. "Lads, ye are over strong
for your mother. But I will not sleep nor eat aright till I have my
David back again, and can see him riding his horse homeward through
the ford."




CHAPTER XXVIII

ON THE CASTLE ROOF


Maud Lindesay parted from Sholto upon the roof of the keep. She had
gone up thither to watch the cavalcade ride off where none could spy
upon her, and Sholto, noting the flutter of white by the battlements,
ran up thither also, pretending that he had forgotten something,
though he was indeed fully armed and ready to mount and ride.

Maud Lindesay was leaning over the battlements of the castle, and,
hearing a step behind her, she looked about with a start of apparent
surprise.

The after dew of recent tears still glorified her eyes.

"Oh, Sholto," she cried, "I thought you were gone; I was watching for
you to ride away. I thought--"

But Sholto, seeing her disorder, and having little time to waste, came