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"
"Nay, Alleyne, it were a cruel kindness, and you have been too
good and true a friend to me that I should use you despitefully.
There cannot be a closer link between us. It is madness to think
of it. Were there no other reasons, it is enough that my father
and your brother would both cry out against it."
"My brother, what has he to do with it? And your father----"
"Come, Alleyne, was it not you who would have me act fairly to
all men, and, certes, to my father amongst them?"
"You say truly," he cried, "you say truly. But you do not reject
me, Maude? You give me some ray of hope? I do not ask pledge or
promise. Say only that I am not hateful to you--that on some
happier day I may hear kinder words from you."
Her eyes softened upon him, and a kind answer was on her lips,
when a hoarse shout, with the clatter of arms and stamping of
steeds, rose up from the bailey below. At the sound her face set
her eyes sparkled, and she stood with flushed cheek and head
thrown back--a woman's body, with a soul of fire.
"My father hath gone down," she cried.


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