ir, I thank you fervently. You have lightened my heart of one of my
fears.'

Malcolm could not but be cheered by being for once spoken to by her in so
friendly a tone; and he added, gravely and resolutely: 'My suit, then, I
yield up, lady--yield for ever. Am I permitted once to kiss that fair
and holy hand, as I resign my presumptuous hopes thereof?'

'Mayhap it were wiser left undone,' said Esclairmonde. 'My mind misgives
me that this meeting is planned to bring us into trouble. Farewell, my
lord.'

As she had apprehended, the door was flung back, and Countess Jaqueline
rushed in, clasping her hands in an affectation of merry surprise, as she
cried, 'Here they are! See, Monseigneur! No keeping doves apart!'

'Madame,' said Esclairmonde, turning on her with cold dignity, 'I have
been thanking Monsieur de Glenuskie for having resigned the suit that I
always declared to be in vain.'

'You misunderstood, Clairette,' said Jaqueline. 'No gentleman ever so
spoke! No, no; my young lord has kept his promise to me, and I will not
fail him.'

'Madame,' faltered Malcolm, 'I came by command of the King of Scots.'

'So much the better,' cried Jaqueline. 'So he can play into our hands,
for all his grandeur! It will lose him his wager, though! Here is
bride--there is priest--nay, bishop!' pointing to him of Therouenne, who
had accompanied her, but hitherto had stood silent.

'Madame,' said Malcolm, 'the time and state of the household forbid.'

'_Ma foi_! What is that to us? King Henry is neither our brother nor
our father; and Catherine will soon laugh at it as a good joke.'

'Nay,' said the Bishop, with more propriety, 'it is the contract and
troth-plight alone that could take place at present. That secure, the
full solemnities will await a fitting time; but it is necessary that the
troth be exchanged at once.'

'Monseigneur,' said Esclairmonde, 'mine is in other keeping.'

'And, Monseigneur,' added Malcolm, 'I have just told the lady that I
repent of having fallen from my vocation, and persecuted her.'

'How, Sir!' said the Bishop, turning on him; 'do you thus lightly treat a
lady of the house of Luxemburg? Beware! There are those who know how to
visit an insult on a malapert lad, who meddles with the honour of the
family.'

'Be not threatened, Lord Malcolm,' said Esclairmonde, with a gleam in her
eye.

And Malcolm was Stewart enough to answer with spirit: 'My lord, I will
meet them if needed. Thi