Presently she asked, "Did that deed of mine, the hair in the urn, offend
you, stranger?"

"Offend me, lady!" I laughed. "Why, had it been the blackest crime
that ever came out of a perverse imagination it would have brought its
own pardon with it; I, least of all in this room, have least cause to
be offended."

"I risked much for you and broke our rules."

"Why, no doubt that was so, but 'tis the privilege of your kind to
have some say in this little matter of giving and taking in marriage.
I only marvel that your countrywomen submit so tamely to the quaintest
game of chance I ever played at.

"Ay, and it is women's nature no doubt to keep the laws which others
make, as you have said yourself. Yet this rule, lady, is one broken
with more credit than kept, and if you have offended no one more than me,
your penance is easily done."

"But I have offended some one," she said, laying her hand on mine
with gentle nervousness in its touch, "one who has the power to hurt,
and enough energy to resent. Hath, up there at the cross-table, have
I offended deeply tonight, for he hoped to have me, and would have
compelled any other man to barter me for the maid chance assigned to
him; but of you, somehow, he is afraid--I have seen him staring at you,
and changing colour as though he knew something no one else knows--"

"Briefly, charming girl," I said, for the wine was beginning to sing in
my head, and my eyes were blinking stupidly--"briefly, Hath hath thee