'If you call me father, do my bidding,' said Sir David. 'Lily can be
safely bestowed with the good Sisters of St. Abbs, nor while you are out
of Albany's reach is the poor lassie worth his molesting; but when I am
gone, your uncles of Albany and Athole become your tutors, and the Prior
has no power to save you. Only over the Border with the King is there
safety from them, and your ruin is the ruin of your sister.'

'And,' added Sir James, 'when the King is at liberty, or when you
yourself are of age, you will return to resume the charge of your fair
sister, unless some nearer protector be found. Meantime,' he laid one
hand on Malcolm's head, and with the other took out the relic which had
had so great an effect upon Walter Stewart, 'I swear on this holy Rood of
St. Andrew, that Malcolm Stewart of Glenuskie shall be my charge, not
merely as my kinsman, but as my young brother.'

'You hear, Malcolm,' said Sir David. 'You will strive to merit such
goodness.'

'Father,' broke out the poor boy again, 'you cannot mean to part us! Let
us abide as we have been till I am of age to take my vows! I am not fit
to serve the King.'

'He is the best judge of that,' returned Sir James.

'And,' added Sir David, 'I tell you, lad, that I shall never be as I was
before, and that were I a whole man and sain, riding back to Glenuskie
the morn, I should still bless the saints and bid you gang.'

Rarely did the youth of the fifteenth century venture to question the