ing
straight forward, as though at a ghost. And I stole off and sobbed
myself to sleep, but not before I had awakened Jock, who did grunt,
after the uncourteous, pig-like manner of a suddenly wakened man,
be-thump his pillow as though 't had been an anvil, and in turning over,
twist the bedclothes half off of me, so that what with the cold (it
being then the fall o' th' year), and what with my distress, I slept but
uneasily.

And the next thing I knew o' th' matter, there was a wedding, and my
little lady wedded to Lord Ernle, and Mistress Marian her bridemaid.
Surely if the good God e'er sent happiness on earth, He did send it to
my little lady and to his lordship. 'Twas at this time that Sir Rowland
asked Mistress Marian to be his spouse. And 'twas even i' th' same spot
where Lord Ernle had discovered his love for my little lady, that he
asked her.

Again it was as though some one had smitten her--her face deadly white
and the red line across her brow. She put out one hand to keep him from
her, and let it rest on his shoulder, and she said, "Rowland, I love
thee well, but no man will ever call me wife."

He said, "Is this the end?"

She said, "Though we should both live to see the last day, it is the
end."

Then he went, with his head bowed down. And when he was gone, for the
first time in all her life she wept aloud.

* * * * *

Some time passed, and matters waxed ever hotter and hotter 'twixt
Cavaliers and Roundheads, till one night there rode up a man to the
castle gate with papers for Lord Ernle, and the long and the short o't
was this: His lordship was ordered to ride forth to war, and my little
lady only three months his wife. Now when this blow fell upon them they
were all at meat in this very hall, for ofttimes in cold weather they
dined here, even as thy father and mother do now, on account o' th'
greater warmth.

And when my lord had glimpsed at the papers he did start to his feet,
saying, "Where is the man who brought these papers?"

Jock answered him, "He is gone, my lord."

Then snatching up a flagon of wine that was near at hand, he drank more
than half that was in it. And again he turned over the papers in his
hand. But all they, my little lady, and Mistress Marian, and your
grandfather and grandmother, seemed turned to stone. All at once my
little lady started up as from a spell, and went and got her arms about
him, as in years gone by when she had hurt him