not be safer to send the Lady
Margaret to the care of some person, where she may be concealed from the
search of Sir Rudolph."

"I would gladly do so," the abbess said, "did I know of such a person or
such a place. But it is difficult indeed for a young lady of rank to be
concealed from such sharp searchers as Sir Rudolph would be certain to
place upon her track. Your proposal that she should take refuge in the
house of some small franklin near the forest, I cannot agree to. In the
first place, it would demean her to be so placed; and in the second, we
could never be sure that the report of her residence there might not
reach the ears of Sir Rudolph. As a last resource, of course such a step
would be justifiable, but not until at least overt outrages have been
attempted. Now I will call Lady Margaret in."

The young girl entered with an air of frank gladness, but was startled at
the alteration which had taken place in her former playfellow, and paused
and looked at the abbess, as if inquiring whether this could be really
the Cuthbert she had known. Lady Margaret was fifteen in years; but she
looked much younger. The quiet seclusion in which she had lived in the
convent had kept her from approaching that maturity which as an earl's
daughter, brought up in the stir and bustle of a castle, she would
doubtless have attained.

"This is indeed Sir Cuthbert," the abbess said, "your old playfellow, and
the husband destined for you by your father and by the will of the king."

Struck with a new timidity, the girl advanced, and, according to the
custom of the times, held up her cheek to be kissed. Cuthbert was almost
as timid as herself.

"I feel, Lady Margaret," he said, "a deep sense of my own unworthiness of
the kindness and honour which the dear lord your father bestowed upon me;
and were it not that many dangers threaten, and that it were difficult
under the circumstances to find one more worthy of you, I would gladly
resign you into the hands of such a one were it for your happiness. But
believe me that the recollection of your face has animated me in many of
the scenes of danger in which I have been placed; and although even in
fancy my thoughts scarcely ventured to rise so high, yet I felt as a true
knight might feel for the lady of his love."

"I always liked you, Sir Cuthbert," the girl said frankly, "better than
any one else next to my father, and gladly submit myself to his will. My
own inclinations indeed, so f