came from our granduncle James at Avondale that he and my cousins Will
and James arrive to-morrow at the Thrieve with a company to attend the
wappenshaw."

The young man sprang to his feet, and dashed one hand into the palm of
the other.

"This is ill tidings indeed!" he cried. "What does the Fat Flatterer
at Castle Thrieve? If he comes to pay homage, it will be but a
mockery. Neither he nor Angus had ever any good-will to my father, and
they have none to me."

"Ah, do not be angry, William," cried the little maid. "It will be
beautiful. They will come at a fitting time. For to-morrow is the
great levy of the weapon-showing, and our cousins will see you in your
pride. And they will see me, too, in my best green sarcenet, riding on
a white palfrey at your side as you promised."

"A weapon-showing is not a place for little girls," said the Earl,
mollified in spite of himself, casting himself down again on the
couch, and playing with the serpent ring on his finger.

"Ah, now," cried his sister, her quick eyes dancing everywhere at
once, "you are not attending to a single word I say. I know by your
voice that you are not. That is a pretty ring you have. Did a lady
give it to you? Was it our Maudie? I think it must have been our Maud.
She has many beautiful things, but mostly it is the young men who wish
to give her such things. She never sends any of them back, but keeps
them in a box, and says that it is good to spoil the Egyptians. And
sometimes when I am tired she will tell me the history of each, and