When, for one flashing instant, they
encountered a keen glance from the young lord, the color deepened, and the
iris-blue eyes suddenly brimmed over with mischievous sparkles; then the black
lashes were lowered demurely, and the page, retreating to his place beside the
step, signified only deference and decorum.
Followed by old Morcard and the fat monk, the Etheling descended from the
doorway and stood on the broad step, shading his eyes from the glare of
brilliant light while he looked about him with evident pleasure in the
fairness of the day.
"Now is the time to lay by a store of sweet memories against the stress of
winter weather," he said. "Whither do you go to harvest the sunshine, father?"
The monk pulled his round red face to a devout length. "Why, there is a good
woman at the other end of the dale, my son, that labors under a weakness of
her limbs; and I have bethought me that it would be a Christian act to fetch
her this holy relique I wear about my neck, that she may lay it upon the
afflicted members and perhaps, aided by my exhortations, experience some
relief."
"If the question may be permitted me, whither do you betake yourself, my
lord?" the old cniht asked.
With the light wand he carried, the young man made a gesture quite around the
horizon. "Everywhere and nowhere. After I have been to see what they are doing
with that portion of the palisade which I bade them repair as soon as they had
finished the barrier, I am--"
"That is something that had clean fallen out of my mind to tell you, Lord
Sebert," Morcard spoke up hastily.
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