k jumping to his feet eagerly, we saw her
come gliding in whom we had seen often before. She gave her hand
timidly, yet with a little laugh, to my lord, shyly yet kindly to young
Lord Erik, and welcomed them as her guests as her father had welcomed
them as his at the castle-door as we passed over it. How such a maiden
could be the daughter of such a feeble, timid, dainty old man as Lord
Raud, I could never know. As a child pretending to ask for forgiveness
was her face--half-laughing and half-sorrowful. Her moving was like a
ripple of blown cloth, it was so springing graceful. And her eyes, when
they occasionally looked at you, had a woman's innocence, never a man's
straightforwardness.

It was sunset three days later. Walking on the beach I could see my lord
and Hildur pacing slowly, he laughing, along the grass that stretched by
the path to the houses in the wood. The scene was lit up by one of the
sometimes far-reaching clear sunsets of autumn. I could see her hand
raised in remonstrance, and though I was too far, I could see that they
were both laughing. Presently she nodded her head of gold hair to him,
and turned into the castle-door, leaving him alone in the soft, far,
unusual, light. He turned.

As he moved, I saw that he was not laughing. As he came down to the
beach, I could see the same excitement in his eyes that had always been
there when he came near her, since his hair began to grizzle, and she
used to bring the cynical old father's friend his beer in the great hall
after meat--a little maiden.

He passed me and turning at a word behind me, I saw him meet young Lord
Erik; smiling again. But the young man's face was troubled, that face on
which all emotions were like shadows on even water.

Not a word, after my lord's greeting, passed.

Suddenly, my lord called to me over his shoulder:

"Lord Erik wishes to go home, wilt thou take ship with him and come back
to me?"

Their figures were dim in the lessened light.

"Let another man go; I stay. Send one of the younger men," I answered.

My lord held out his hand to me. Young Lord Erik's face was white in the
dusk.

Over our beer, by the firelight, I could see the glances Hildur threw to
young Lord Erik, I could see his hard-shut mouth; I could see my lord's
cynical smile and the gleam of the excitement in his eyes; I could see
old Lord Raud, daintily fingering his beer-mug-handle--thoughts far away.
And I was glad I had stayed by my lord.

So, t