"Cherish the babe you have saved, and, as sure as that I am now about to die, one day you shall be repaid." And he stooped and kissed the little maid before he went on with the others to the place of slaughter.
Then I hurried within, so that I might not hear the dull thud of the Red Axe, on the block nor the inhuman howlings of the dogs in the kennels afterwards.
When my father came home an hour later, before even he took off his costume of red, he came up to our chamber and looked long at the little maid as she lay asleep.

Then he gazed at me, who watched him from under my lids and from behind the shadows of the bedclothes.
But his quick eye caught the gleam of light in mine.
"You are awake, boy!" he said, somewhat sternly.
I nodded up to him without speaking.
"What would you with the little maid ?" he said.

"Do you know that you and she together came very near losing me my favor with the Duke, and it might be my life also, both at one time to-night ?" I put my hand on the maiden's head where it lay on the pillow by me.
"She is my little wife!" I said.

"The Duke gave her to me out in the court-yard there!" And this is the whole tale of how the Little Playmate came to dwell with us in the Red Tower..