Her thoughts were with her dead foster sister, and she could not
clearly take in what she saw. It was a long while before she was
aware that the three men at the table were well known and dear to
her. For they who sat there were none other than Sir Archie and
his two friends Sir Reginald and Sir Philip.

For some days past Sir Archie had not visited Elsalill, and she
was glad to see him. She was on the point of calling to him that
she was there at hand; but then the thought came to her, how
strange it was that he had ceased to visit her, and she kept
silence. "Maybe his fancy has turned to another," thought
Elsalill. "Maybe it is of her he is thinking."

For Sir Archie sat a little apart from the others. He was silent
and gazed steadily before him, without touching his drink. He took
no part in the talk, and when his friends addressed a word to him,
he was seldom at the pains to make them an answer.

Elsalill could hear that the others were trying to put life into
him. They asked him why he had left drinking, and even sought to
persuade him that he should go and talk with Elsalill and so
recover his good humour.

"You are to pay no heed to me," said Sir Archie. "There is another
that fills my thoughts. Still do I see her before me, and still do
I hear the sound of her voice in my ears."

And then Elsalill saw that Sir Archie was gazing at one of the
massive pillars that upheld the cellar roof. She saw, too, what
till then she had not marked, that her foster sister stood beside