away blushing from his scrutiny. 

 'The wound is fresh yet, Roger!' she said. 'It will bleed. Time will perchance heal it.' 

 'And by all the saints! a very short time too!' said Hereford triumphantly. 'Thou shalt plight a new troth to-night.' 

 Emma started with apprehension. In those days, damsels of rank were often disposed of in marriage by their male relatives with very little regard to their prejudices or affections, a girl's whimsies appearing of small consequence in their eyes beside the importance of a good political alliance, and Emma feared lest her brother might intend to demand a summary transference of her affections. Hitherto, it was true that the young earl had been tender and indulgent, and had regarded her wishes the more readily perhaps in this matter, that Ralph de Guader, the powerful Earl of East Anglia, was the very man of all others to suit his views of a desirable brother-in-law. But Emma knew him to be both impulsive and obstinate, and visions of a fierce struggle with him, ending in the cloister, the haven of refuge for women in those days, passed through her mind. 

 The earl, however, took no notice of her trepidation. 'Come,' he said, and led the way down the wide stone staircase. Emma followed trembling, and wondering what ordeal was before her. They entered a small room set apart near the great banqueting-hall, which was the earl's special sanctum. 

 The next moment she found herself with her two hands clasped in those of Ralph de Guader, while he was looking down at her with a hunger of entreaty in his eyes; and in the minds of both was the unspoken thought, that if all had gone well they would have been husband and wife that day. 

 The revulsion from apprehension to joy was so great as to be almost a pain. 

 'Is it thou indeed, Ralph?' she faltered; and the young Earl of Hereford laughed. 

 'Didst think I had brought home an ogre to be my beau-frère,' he asked, 'that thou wast so sore afraid?' 

 Emma turned anxiously to De Guader. 

 'The king, then, has relented?' she said quickly. 'In sooth, I doubted not his heart would soften. He could not be so cruel as to part us!' 

 De Guader shot a questioning glance at Hereford. 

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