aid Maud, a little more slowly, "we
will be your sisters, and the ill times shall not come again."

The Lady Sybilla smiled a sad subtle smile and shook her head.

"I thank you. I thank you more than you know. It eases my heart that
you should forgive a woman such as I for all the evil she has brought
you and yours. But I am now no fit companion for you or any. I am
become but a wandering shape, speaking to one who cannot answer, and
seeking him whom I can never find."

The little Maid, being but a child, mistook her meaning.

"No, no," she cried, "your life is not done. If the one whom you love
hath left you unkindly--well, bide awhile, and when the first smart is
passed, we will marry you to some braver and more handsome knight.
There are many such in Scotland. I pray you come with Maud and me even
as we wish you. Why, there would not be three like us in all the land.
I wager we will set kings by the ears between us. Though, as for me, I
can only marry a Douglas!"

The smile of the Lady Sybilla grew ever sadder and ever sweeter.

"The man whom I loved, and who loved me, I betrayed to the death.
There is no forgiveness for such as I in this life. Perhaps there may
be in the next. At least, _he_ forgave me, and that is enough. He
believed in me against myself, and I will wait. Till then I go hither
and thither and none shall hinder me or molest--for upon Sybilla de
Thouars God hath set the seal of Cain!"

Margaret Douglas flicked her steed impatiently, causing the spirited
little beast to curvet.

"I think it is very ill-done of you not to come to Scotland with us,"
she said petulantly, "when we would have been so good to you!"

"Too good, too kind," said the Lady Sybilla, very gently; "such
kindness is not for such as I am. But if I may, while I live I will
keep the golden cross you lent me--the crucifix your brother gave to
you on your birthday!"

"Keep it--it is yours! I do not want it!" cried Margaret, glad to have
found some way of evidencing her gratitude.

"I thank you," said Sybilla de Thouars; "some day I may come to
Scotland. And if I do, you shall come out from Thrieve and meet me by
the white thorns of the Carlinwark at the hour when the little
children sing!"

And so, without other farewell, she turned and rode slowly away down
the avenues of fallen leaves, till the folding woodlands hid her from
the sight of those two who watched her with tear-blurred eyes and
hearts strangely stirred with p