y far the goodliest man
that ever I had looked upon. His teeth were as white as the foam on his
horse's bit, and there was a deep nick at the corner of his mouth, like
that at the mouth of a girl.

Then must I call Marian, and send her to break the news to my lady. So
in a moment she comes rushing down along the stair-way, like a branch
that is blown suddenly from the top o' a tall tree, and so into Lord
Robert's arms; and he catches her to his heart, and so stands holding
her; and they make no motion nor any sound whatever. Then turns the earl
away, and leaves them together. But I marked that his eyes were
brimming, and that there was a quiver in his lip.

Ere night all is known to us: how Lord Robert had been a prisoner in
Spain all these years, yet was he treated with courtesy at the behest o'
some wench. But he did not love her, God be praised! And 'tis in my mind
to this day how he might have wed her, and how the earl did relate to
him his bitter experiences with a Spanish wife. Ay, that is my firm
opinion. All this and more did we hear, laughing and weeping by turns.
But it was not until Lord Robert saw my lady alone that she heard of how
the earl had saved him at the risk of his own life, all but bearing him
in his arms through the enemy, hewing his way right and left. And,
moreover, Lord Robert did tell how that the blood from that cut on the
earl's temple did in truth run down into his eyes and blind him, but how
that he dashed it back and slew the man who wounded him, and so they
escaped.

The next morning, as I did sally forth with my cross-bow to have a shot
at a screech-owl which for some nights past had disturbed Marian's
slumbers, she in her turn having disturbed mine, I did see Lord Denbeigh
come out upon the terrace and throw himself down along the grass,
beneath a tulip-tree, with a book. But he read not, lying very quiet,
with his head raised up upon one hand and his elbow sunk in the soft
turf. And as the sunlight struck through the leaves upon his glittering
hair, and his face like marble, I could not but pause to gaze on him, so
noble looked he. But his eyes were far away, and his thoughts with them.

It was for this that he did not hear my lady coming until she stood
beside him, and her white gown brushed his cheek. But seeing her, he
leaped to his feet, and the blood ran along his face, and then seemed
all to settle in the long wound, leaving him more pale than before. And
she said to him,