CHAPTER XXIV
THE SECOND FLOUTING OF MAUD LINDESAY
Sholto MacKim stood on the lowest step of the ascent into the noblegateway of Thrieve, hardly able to believe in his own good fortune.But these were the days when no man awaked without having thepossibility of either a knighthood or the gallows tree to encouragehim to do his duty between dawn and dark.
The lords of Douglas had gone within, and were now drinking the Cup ofAppetite as their armour was being unbraced by the servitors, and thechafed limbs rubbed with oil and vinegar after the toils of thetourney. But still Sholto stood where his master had left him, lookingat the green scum of duckweed which floated on the surface of the moatof Thrieve, yet of a truth seeing nothing whatever, till a low voicepierced the abstraction of his reverie.
"Sir Sholto!" said Mistress Maud Lindesay, "I bid you a long good-by,Sir Sholto MacKim! Say farewell to him, Margaret, as you hear me do!"
"Good-by, kind Sir Sholto!" piped the childish voice of the Maid ofGalloway, as she made a little courtesy to Sholto MacKim in imitationof her companion. "I know not where you are going, but Maudie bids me,so I will!"
"And wherefore say you good-by to me?" cried Sholto, finding his wordsat once in the wholesome atmosphere of raillery which everywhereaccompanied that quipsome damosel, Mistress Maud Lindesay.
"Why, because we are humble folk, and must get our ways upstairs outof the way of dignities. Permit me to kiss your glove, fair lord!" andhere she tripped down the steps and pretended to take his hand.
"Hold off!" he cried, snatching it away angrily, for her tone vexedand thwarted him.
The girl affected a great terror, which merged immediately into a meekaffectation of resignation.
"No--you are right--we are not worthy even to kiss your knightlyhand," she said, "but we will respectfully greet you." Here she swepthim a full reverence, and ran up the steps again before he could takehold of her. Then, standing on the topmost step, and holding herfriend's hand in hers, she spoke to the Maid of Galloway in a tonehushed and regretful, as one speaks of the dead.
"No, Margaret," she said, "he will no more play with us. Hide-and-seekabout the stack-yard ricks at the Mains is over in the gloamings. SirSholto cares no more for us. He has put away childish things. He willnot even blow out a lamp for us with his own honourable lips. No, hewill call his squire to do it!"
Sholto looked the indignation he would not trust himself to speak.
"He will dine with the Earl in hall, and quaff and stamp and shoutwith the best when they drink the toasts. But he has become too greata man to carry you and me any more over the stepping-stones at theford, or pull with us the ripe berries when the briars are droopingpurple on the braes of Keltonhill. Bid him good-by, Margaret, for hewas our kind friend once. And when he rides out to battle, perhaps, ifwe are good and respectful, he may again wave us a hand and say:'There are two lassies that once I kenned!'"
At this inordinate flouting the patience of the new knight, growingmore and more angry at each word, came quickly to the breaking point;for his nerves were jarred and jangled by the excitement of the day.He gave vent to a short sharp cry, and started up the steps with theintention of making Mistress Lindesay pay in some fashion for herimpertinence. But that active and gamesome maid was most entirely onthe alert. Indeed, she had been counting from the first upon provokingsuch a movement. And so, with her nimble charge at her heels, MistressLindesay was already at the inner port, and through the iron-barredgate of the turret stair, before the youthful captain of the guard,still cumbered with his armour, could reach the top of the outersteps.
As soon as Sholto saw that he was hopelessly distanced, he slackenedhis gait, and, with a sober tread befitting a knight and officer of agarrison, he walked along the passage which led to the chamberallotted to the captain of the guard, from which that day LandlessJock had removed his effects.
The soldiers of the guard, who had heard of the honours which had soswiftly come upon the young man, rose and respectfully saluted theirchief. And Sholto, though he had been silent when the sharp tongue ofthe mirth-loving maid tormented him, found speech readily enough now.
"I thank you," he said, acknowledging their salutations. "We haveknown each other before. Fortune and misfortune come to all, and itwill be your turns one day. But up or down, good or ill, we shall notbe the worse comrades for having kept the guard and sped the bolttogether."
Then there came one behind him who stood at the door of his chamber,as he was unhelming himself, and said: "My captain, there stand at theturret stair the ladies Margaret and Maud with a message for you."
"A message for me--what is it?" said Sholto, testily, being (and smallblame to him) a trifle ruffled in his temper.
"Nay, sir," said the man, respectfully, "that I know not, but methinksit comes from my lord."
It will not do to say to what our gallant Sholto condemned alltricksome queans and spiteful damosels in whose eyes dwelt mischiefbrimming over, and whose tongues spoke softest words that yet stungand rankled like fairy arrows dipped in gall and wormwood.
But since the man stood there and repeated, "I judge the message to beone from my lord," Sholto could do no less than hastily pull on hisdoublet and again betake himself along the corridor to the foot of thestair.
When he arrived there he saw no one, and was about to depart again ashe had come, when the head of Maud Lindesay appeared round the upperspiral looking more distractedly mischievous and bewitching than ever,her head all rippling over with dark curls and her eyes fairlyscintillating light. She nodded to him and leaned a little fartherover, holding tightly to the baluster meanwhile.
"Well," said Sholto, roughly, "what are my lord's commands for me, if,indeed, he has charged you with any?"
"He bids me say," replied Mistress Maud Lindesay, "that, since lampsare dangerous things in maidens' chambers, he desires you to assist inthe trimming of the waxen tapers to-night--that is, if so menial aservice shame not your knighthood."
"Pshaw!" muttered Sholto, "my lord said naught of the sort."
"Well then," said Maud Lindesay, smiling down upon him with anexpression innocent and sweet as that of an angel on a paintedceiling, "you will be kind and come and help us all the same?"
"That I will not!" said Sholto, stamping his foot like an ill-temperedboy.
"Yes, you will--because Margaret asks you?"
_"I will not!"_
"Then because _I_ ask you?"
Spite of his best endeavours, Sholto could not take his eyes from thegirl's face, which seemed fairer and more desirable to him now thanever. A quick sob of passion shook him, and he found words at last:
"Oh, Maud Lindesay, why do you treat thus one who loves you with allhis heart?"
The girl's face changed. The mischief died out of it, and somethingvague and soft welled up in her eyes, making them mistily grey andlustrous. But she only said: "Sholto, it is growing dark already! Itis time the tapers were trimmed!"
Then Sholto followed her up the stairs, and though I do not know,there is some reason for thinking that he forgave her all herwickedness in the sweet interspace between the gloaming and the mirk,when the lamps were being lighted on earth, and in heaven the starswere coming out.