The door opened slowly; but, instead of either of Lucy's maids or pretty Cicely, who waited upon them, the ape-like face and figure of poor Tangel, the dwarf, appeared, beckoning Hugh out of the room with one of his strange gestures.
"What would you, boy?" said Hugh, without rising from his seat.
"I would have you get upon your walking-sticks," replied Tangel, "and come with me."
"I must first know why," answered Hugh de Monthermer. "Go away, good Tangel; I will come presently."
"Nay, you must come now," said the dwarf. "Robin stays for no man; and Robin and the t'other fellow sent me for him of the purfled jerkin. He has matter of counsel for thine ear, though well I wot that it is for all the world like sticking a flower in a cock's tail."
"I see not the likeness, good Tangel," answered Hugh, slowly rising.
"It will soon fall out again," said Tangel. "Counsel, I mean, Sir Man at Arms. What's the wit of giving counsel to a man in a purfled jerkin? But you must come and have it, whether you will or not."
"It must be so, I suppose," answered Hugh. But Lucy held him for a moment by the sleeve, saying, anxiously--
"You will come back, Hugh? You will come back?"
"Think you that I will leave you here now, Lucy?" he asked, with a smile. "No, no, dear Lucy; as I said before, if I take you not with me, I will remain and spend my life in the forest with you."