"The care was naught but pleasure." "Yet most heavy to you," she said.

"I know you will make the least of it all, but she knows well what she owes to you.

Now, I would have you think of what I say.

It pleases you to call yourself her courtman--well, that may be no bad way of putting your readiness to serve her.

But I would not have you forget that you are Malcolm the Jarl." I laughed, for the title never had meant much, even when my father held it.