ON THE CASTLE ROOF Maud Lindesay parted from Sholto upon the roof of the keep.

She had gone up thither to watch the cavalcade ride off where none could spy upon her, and Sholto, noting the flutter of white by the battlements, ran up thither also, pretending that he had forgotten something, though he was indeed fully armed and ready to mount and ride.
Maud Lindesay was leaning over the battlements of the castle, and, hearing a step behind her, she looked about with a start of apparent surprise.
The after dew of recent tears still glorified her eyes.
"Oh, Sholto," she cried, "I thought you were gone; I was watching for you to ride away.

I thought--" But Sholto, seeing her disorder, and having little time to waste, came quickly forward and took her in his arms without apology or prelude, as is (they say) wisest in such cases.
"Maud," he said, his utterance quick and hoarse, "we go into the house of our enemies.

Thirty knights and no more accompany my lord, who might have ridden out with three thousand in his train." "'Tis all that witch woman," cried the girl; "can you not advise him ?" "The Earl of Douglas did not ask my advice," said Sholto, a little dryly, being eager to turn the conversation upon his own matters and to his own advantage.

"And, moreover, if he rides into danger for the sake of love--why, I for one think the more of him for it." "But for such a creature," objected Maud Lindesay.