se but smile, and soon threw
himself down on the bed, setting his clasped hands behind his head,
and contenting himself with looking at his little sister.

Though at this time but eight years of age, Margaret of Douglas was
possessed of such extraordinary vitality and character that she seemed
more like eleven. She had the clear-cut, handsome Douglas face, the
pale olive skin, the flashing dark eyes, and the crisp, blue-black
hair of her brother. A lithe grace and quickness, like those of a
beautiful wild animal, were characteristic of every movement.

"Our mother hath been anxious about you, brother mine," said the
little girl, tiring suddenly of her dance, and leaping upon the other
end of the couch on which her brother was reclining. Establishing
herself opposite him, she pulled the coverlet up about her so that
presently only her face could be seen peeping out from under the
silken folds.

"Oh, I was so cold, but I am warmer now," she cried. "And if Maid
Betsy A'hannay comes to take me away, I want you to stretch out your
hand like this, and say: 'Seneschal, remove that besom to the deep
dungeon beneath the castle moat,' as we used to do in our plays before
you became a great man. Then I could stay very long and talk to you
all through the night, for Maud Lindesay sleeps so sound that nothing
can awake her."

Gradually the anger passed out of the face of William Douglas as he
listened to his sister's prattle, like the vapours from the surface of
a hill tarn when the sun rises in his strength. He even thought with
some self-reproach of his treatment of Malise and of his uncle the
Abbot. But a glance at the ring on his finger, and the thought of what
might have been his good fortune at that moment but for their
interference, again hardened his resolution to adamant within his
breast.

His sister's voice, clear and high in its childish treble, recalled
him to himself.

"Oh, William, and there is such news; I forgot, because I have been so
overbusied with arranging my new puppet's house that Malise made for
me. But scarcely were you gone away on Black Darnaway ere a messenger
came from our granduncle James at Avondale that he and my cousins Will
and James arrive to-morrow at the Thrieve with a company to attend the
wappenshaw."

The young man sprang to his feet, and dashed one hand into the palm of
the other.

"This is ill tidings indeed!" he cried. "What does the Fat Flatterer
at Castle Thrieve? If he comes