ays thou mightest do, and I, as
well I know, but a poor rustic clod. Now I have forty shillings by me
which I may spend as I list, and so I do beseech thee that thou wilt
take yon dagger of me as a love-gift, and have and hold it for thy very
own."

Gascoyne stared open-mouthed at Myles. "Dost mean it?" said he, at last.

"Aye," said Myles, "I do mean it. Master Smith, give him the blade."

At first the smith grinned, thinking it all a jest; but he soon saw that
Myles was serious enough, and when the seventeen shillings were produced
and counted down upon the anvil, he took off his cap and made Myles a
low bow as he swept them into his pouch. "Now, by my faith and troth,"
quoth he, "that I do call a true lordly gift. Is it not so, Master
Gascoyne?"

"Aye," said Gascoyne, with a gulp, "it is, in soothly earnest." And
thereupon, to Myles's great wonderment, he suddenly flung his arms about
his neck, and, giving him a great hug, kissed him upon the cheek. "Dear
Myles," said he, "I tell thee truly and of a verity I did feel warm
towards thee from the very first time I saw thee sitting like a poor oaf
upon the bench up yonder in the anteroom, and now of a sooth I give thee
assurance that I do love thee as my own brother. Yea, I will take the
dagger, and will stand by thee as a true friend from this time forth.
Mayhap thou mayst need a true friend in this place ere thou livest long
with us, for some of us esquires be soothly rough, and knocks are more
plenty here than broad pennies, so that one new come is like to have a
hard time gaining a footing."

"I thank thee," said Myles, "for thy offer of love and friendship, and
do tell thee, upon my part, that I also of all the world would like best
to have thee for my friend."

Such was the manner In which Myles formed the first great friendship of
his life, a friendship that was destined to last him through many years
to come. As the two walked back across the great quadrangle, upon which
fronted the main buildings of the castle, their arms were wound across
one another's shoulders, after the manner, as a certain great writer
says, of boys and lovers.

CHAPTER 6

A boy's life is of a very flexible sort. It takes but a little while for
it to shape itself to any new surroundings in which it may be thrown, to
make itself new friends, to settle itself to new habits; and so it was
that Myles fell directly into the ways of the lads of Devlen. On his
first morning, as he wa