'I did hear tell that the Lady Prioress minded her hawks more than
her Hours,' said Mother Doll.

'And that's sooth,' said the Lady Anne, beginning to prove herself a
chatterbox. 'The merlins have better hoods than the Sisters; and as
to the Hours, no one ever gets up in the night to say Nocturns or
even Matins but old Sister Scholastica, and she is as strict and
cross as may be.'

Here the flow of confidence was interrupted by the return of Hal, who
gazed eagerly, though in a shamefaced way, at the guest as he set
down a bowl of ewe milk. She was a well-grown girl of ten, slender,
and bearing herself like one high bred and well trained in
deportment; and her face was delicately tinted on an olive skin, with
fine marked eyebrows, and dark bright eyes, and her little hunting
dress of green, and the hood, set on far back, became the dark locks
that curled in rings beneath.

She saw a slender lad, dark-haired and dark-eyed, ruddy and embrowned
by mountain sun and air; and the bow with which he bent before her
had something of the rustic lout, and there was a certain shyness
over him that hindered him from addressing her.

'So, shepherd,' she said, 'when wilt thou take me back to Greystone?'

'Father will fix that,' interposed the housewife; 'meanwhile, ye had
best eat your porridge. Here is Father, in good time with the cows'
milk.'