"And is there patronage without dependance, my lord?" he asked, in a quiet tone.
"Well, well," said Lester, colouring, "have it your own way. You have pride enough for Lucifer!"
"But not enough for a noble," said the other, with a very slight curl of the lip.
"Mark Meredith," said Kate, reprovingly, "you forget your station. A proper degree of pride is the secret of independence. Perhaps you have too much. Lord Robert is sincere, and means well by you."
"Believe her, Mark," said Grace Fitzgerald, with playful raillery; "nobody ought to know so well what Lord Robert means as my cousin Kate."
"Stop your saucy tongue, Grace," said the maiden, placing a finger on her bright lips. "What will you now do, Mark, with this bird, that has cost us, through your thoughtlessness, so much anxiety and suffering?"
"And betrayed a secret that was not quite a secret before," said the mischievous Grace.
"Grace, prithee hist!" cried Kate, with a spice of asperity.
"Give me the bird, peasant!" said Lester, in a tone of authority. "I will nail it on the door of the lodge at Castle More, in honour of the fair archer who shot it."
"Here is the gentle owner," replied the youth, turning towards Kate Bellamont; and gracefully kneeling as he spoke, he gallantly laid the bird at her feet, saying,