"You are one to declaim!" said Anthony, scornfully. "You who run away, and bite your knuckles till they are raw." Urith's brow darkened. "You might have spared me that taunt," she said; "you would have done so had you been generous." "Come over here," commanded Anthony. "How can I measure my words when I have to throw them at you from a furlong off? It is like a game of quoits when one has not strid the distance, and knows not what force to employ." Urith without further demur came to him. This was a new experience to her to be addressed in tones of command; her mother scolded and found fault, and gave, indeed, orders which she countermanded next moment, so that Urith had grown up with the habit of following her own desires, and disregarding the contradictory or impossible injunctions laid on her. "Come here, Urith," said Anthony; "I do not see why we have been such strangers heretofore. Why do you never come to Hall?" "Because Hall has never come to Willsworthy." "But my sister; you would like Bessie--I am sure of that." "I like her now." "Then you will come and see her at Hall?" "When she has first been to see me, and has asked me to return the visit." "She shall do that at once." "She has promised to come here. She was very kind to me last night." "She is a good creature," said Anthony, condescendingly. "And no fool," threw in Urith. "I don't say she is clever, but what brains she has are full ripe. She is considerably older than I am." To this Urith made no response. Then Anthony took up the gloves, drew them out, and passed them under the ribbon of his hat. "I was your true knight yesterday, achieving your deliverance, and every true knight must wear either his lady's colours or some pledge to show that she has accepted him as her knight. That, I have heard say, is how some crests were given or taken. Now I have assumed mine--your gloves. I take them as my right, and shall wear them in your name." "They are not mine," said Urith; "you will do me a favour if you will take them for me to her to whom they of right belong, and say that I return them to her. She lost them last night, and I found them. I never go near Kilworthy--never have an opportunity of seeing her--and her brother I am not likely to see. Therefore I beseech you to convey them to her from me." "To whom? Not Julian?" "Yes, to Julian." Anthony muttered an oath. "I will take them from my hat and throw them under foot," he said, angrily. "I did not ask for a favour of Julian Crymes, but for something of yours, Urith." "You did not ask any one for a favour," she replied, gravely. "You took the gloves unasked." He pulled them from his hat, and was about to cast them back on the window-sill, when Urith arrested his hand. "No," she said; "I asked you a favour, and you will not be so discourteous a knight as to refuse it me." "You take me as your knight!" exclaimed Anthony, with a flash of pleasure from his eyes that met hers, and before which hers fell.