These and many like words were showered on Cuthbert as he sat his
steed at the door of Trevlyn Chase, as the dusk was beginning to
gather, and his uncle and cousins stood clustered together on the
steps to see him ride forth to seek his fortune, as Kate insisted
on calling it, though her father spoke of it rather as a visit to
his mother's kinsfolks.

Cuthbert had been very loath to go. He had found himself happier
beneath his uncle's roof than ever he had been before (Sir Richard
was in point of fact his cousin, but the lad had given him the
title of uncle out of respect, and now never thought of him as
anything else), but he knew that to linger long would be neither
safe nor possible.

Only his strange and savage life had prevented the news of his
son's present quarters from coming to the knowledge of the angry
Nicholas, and all were feeling it better for the young man to take
his departure. Now the moment of parting had really come, and
already the hope of a flying visit to the Chase in the summer next
to follow was the brightest thought to lighten the regrets of the
present.

"Ay, that will I gladly do!" cried the lad, with kindling eyes.
"Why, twenty miles is naught of a journey when one can rise with
the midsummer sun. I trow I shall pine after the forest tracks
again. I shall have had enough and to spare of houses and cities by
the time the summer solstice is upon us."

"We shall look for you, we shall wait for you!" cried Kate, waving