vouchsafe to me one of those doe-skin gloves, that I may wear it as the badge of her whose servant I shall ever be.'
'Alack and alas for the fairest and sweetest!' she cried. 'Fair and sweet I would fain be for your dear sake, my lord, but old I am and ugly, and the knights would laugh should you lay lance in rest in such a cause.'
'Edricson,' quoth Sir Nigel, 'you have young eyes, and mine are somewhat bedimmed. Should you chance to see a knight laugh, or smile, or even, look you, arch his brows, or purse his mouth, or in any way show surprise that I should uphold the Lady Mary, you will take particular note of his name, his coat-armour, and his lodging. Your glove, my life's desire!'
The Lady Mary Loring slipped her hand from her yellow leather gauntlet, and he, lifting it with dainty reverence, bound it to the front of his velvet cap.
'It is with mine other guardian angels,' quoth he, pointing at the saints' medals which hung beside it. 'And now, my dearest, you have come far enow. May the Virgin guard and prosper thee! One kiss!' He bent down from his saddle, and then striking spurs into his horse's sides, he galloped at top speed after his men, with his three squires at his heels. Half a mile further, where the road topped a hill, they looked back, and the Lady Mary on her white palfrey was still where they had left her. A moment later they were on the downward slope, and she had vanished from their view.
CHAPTER XIV
HOW SIR NIGEL SOUGHT FOE A WAYSIDE VENTURE
For a time Sir Nigel was very moody and downcast, with bent brows and eyes upon the pommel of his saddle. Edricson and Terlake rode behind him in little better case, while Ford, a careless and light-hearted youth, grinned at the melancholy of his companions, and flourished his lord's
