The old steward was, however, up and alert, ready to offer the stirrup-cup, and the horses were waiting in the court; but what they had by no means expected or desired was that Duke Murdoch himself, in his long furred gown, came slowly across the hall to bid his young kinsman Kennedy farewell.

‘Speed you well, my lad,’ he said kindly.  ’I ask ye not to tarry in what ye must deem a graceless household;’ and he looked sadly across at his two sons, boys in age, but seniors in excess.  ’I would we had mair lads like you.  I fear me a heavy reckoning is coming.’

‘You have ever been good lord to all, Sir,’ said Kennedy, affectionately, for he really loved and pitied the soft-hearted Duke.

‘Too good, maybe,’ said Murdoch.  ‘What! the scholar goes with you?’ and he fixed a look on Lily’s face that brought the colour deep into it under her hood.

‘Yes, Sir,’ answered Kennedy, respectfully.  ‘Here, you Tam,’ indicating Malcolm, ‘take him behind you on the sumpter-horse.’

‘Fare ye weel, gentle scholar,’ said Murdoch, taking the hand that Lily was far from offering.  ’May ye win to your journey’s end safe and sound; and remember,’ he added, holding the fingers tight, and speaking under the hood, ’if ye have been hardly served, ’twas to make ye the second lady in Scotland.  Take care of her—­him, young laddie,’ he added, turning on Malcolm:  ‘’tis best so; and mind’ (he spoke in the same wheedling tone of self-excuse), ’if ye tell the tale down south, nae ill hath been dune till her, and where could she have been mair fitly than beneath her kinsman’s roof?  I’d not let her go, but that young blude is hot and ill to guide.’

An answer would have been hard to find; and it was well that he did not look for any.  Indeed, Malcolm could not have spoken without being heard by the seneschal, and therefore could only bow, take his seat on the baggage-horse, and then feel his sister mounting behind him in an attitude less unfamiliar on occasion even to the high-born ladies of the fifteenth century than to those of our day.  Four years it was since he had felt her touch, four years since she had sat behind him as they followed the King to Coldingham!  His heart swelled with thankfulness as he passed under the gateway, and the arms that clung round his waist clasped him fervently; but neither ventured on a word, amid Kennedy’s escort, and they rode on a couple of miles in the same silence.  Then Kennedy, pausing, said, ’There lies your way, Brother.  Tam, you may show the scholar the way to the Gray Friars’ Grange, bear them greetings frae me, and halt till ye hear from me.  Fare ye well.’

Lilias trusted her voice to say, ’Blessings on ye, Sir, for all ye have done for me,’ but Malcolm thought it wiser in his character of retainer to respond only by a bow.