He put his arm round her, turned her face up to his, and looked into her
eyes. "Now, tell me you do not love me, my little sweetheart," he said.
Evidently she could not so answer him, for a smile broke over her face.
"Yes or no, Agnes?" he asked softly.
A short gasp and then a timid "Yes", and he would have kissed her, but
she slipped away from him and stood at the farther end of the room.
"I cannot; you know I cannot. What will become of Aunt Patience?" she
said.
He laughed. "I think that will settle itself, Agnes," he answered.
"Don't run away, little one." And he took both her hands in his.
"Have you seen nothing?"
"Seen! What should I have seen?" said Agnes.
"Well, then, wait awhile and you will see," said Reginald. "In the
meantime, you love me and I love you; so you must be my wife, and the
king will knight me, and we will go and live in the place I love best in
the world, De Lisle Abbey."
"Then Aunt Patience must come too," she said. "She cannot stay here
alone."
She did not know that Aunt Patience had come back until she felt her
arms round her, and heard the voice she loved so well say:
"I shall not hinder you, my darling. Did you not yourself say it would
be a good thing if the vicarage and the farm were one dwelling-place?"
"Yes, I did," answered Agnes, "because we are all such good friends."
"Just so," said Patience. "But as the vicarage is too small for us all,
Mr. Ewan and myself have settled that he and Jessie shall live up here
with me after you are married."
"Oh," answered Agnes, "then you will not want me!" And her face fell.
"We shall always want you, dear. Only, I think someone else wants you
more, and someone wants me too, and we shall never be quite happy
without our lovers. Am I not right?" She drew Agnes into her arms, and
they kissed tenderly, in remembrance of the past, and for joy in the
future.
And so it came to pass that a few weeks later Sir Reginald De Lisle and
Agnes were married in the little church where her mother lay sleeping;
and they rode away together, she on her white palfrey, he on his black
charger, and he took her to her old home, the home of her race, now his
and hers.
They left no sadness behind, for Mr. Ewan and Patience were also married
a few days later in the same village church, and Jessie's heart was glad
because she had a mother. And so, for one and all, the evil days were
over.