Therewith she lifted the tent lap and went out, stepping daintily, and her slender body swaying like a willow branch, and came at once face to face with the Lord of Utterbol, and bowed low and humbly before him, though her face, unseen of him, smiled mockingly. The Lord looked on her greedily, and let his hand and arm go over her shoulder, and about her side, and he drew her to him, and kissed her, and said: “What, Agatha! and why art thou not bringing forth thy mistress to us?” She raised her face to him, and murmured softly, as one afraid, but with a wheedling smile on her face and in her eyes: “Nay, my Lord, she will abide within to-day, for she is ill at ease; if your grace goeth in, she will tell thee what she will have.”
“Agatha,” quoth he, “I will hear her, and I will do her pleasu
