“What say you, Sir Oscar?  Am I not right?”

“I am a man of peace, Earl Roderic,” said Sir Oscar Redmain gravely.  “I have no enemies but the enemies of my king and country.  And methinks, my lord, that a loyal subject of the King of Scots is but a traitorous hound if he stoop to take arms in favour of either Easterling or Norseman, and against our good friends of England.  You, my lord, may perhaps pay fealty to King Hakon of Norway, as well as to his majesty Alexander of Scotland.  It is not all men who can make it so easy to serve two masters.”

“A traitorous hound, forsooth!  You surely mistake me, Sir Oscar,” cried Roderic, reddening at the reproach.  “I said not that I paid truage to any king but our own King of Scots, God bless him!  And though, indeed, King Alexander is but a stripling, knowing little of kingcraft, yet, even though he were a babe in arms, he and no other is still my sovereign lord.”

And at that he raised his goblet to his lips and drank a deep draught of wine.  Then, lightly turning to the lady of Rothesay, and helping her to cut up the venison on her platter, that she might the more easily take the small pieces in her dainty white fingers, he said: 

“After the rough roving life that I have been leading these many years, my lady, ’tis truly a great joy to come back once more to the peaceful Isle of Bute.  Much do I envy my good brother Hamish, in that he hath so beauteous a partner as yourself to sit before him at his board.  Truly he is a most fortunate man!”

Adela’s fair cheeks blushed rosy red at this compliment, but she did not smile.

“Methinks, Lord Roderic,” said she, nervously breaking the white bread cake at her side, “that with so small a distance between Bute and Gigha, you might surely have come to visit your brother long ere this present time.  For although Earl Hamish hath ofttimes spoken of you, yet never until this day have I seen you; and ’tis well-nigh a score of years that I have lived in Bute.”

“Alas!” said Roderic, looking uneasy, “since my poor father, Earl Alpin, died, I have had little spirit to come back to these scenes.  It was in anger that my brother and I parted, when, as you well know, the lordship over the two islands was divided.  The larger dominion of Bute fell to the share of Hamish.  I, as the younger son, was perforce content to take the miserable portion that I now possess.  Gigha is but a small island, my lady.”

“Our happiness need not depend upon the extent of our dominions, Lord Roderic,” said Adela; “and I doubt not you are passing happy, notwithstanding that you have but a younger son’s inheritance.”

“Not so,” said Roderic, planting his heavy elbows on the board; “for where can a man find happiness when those who are dearest to him have been torn away?”

“Then you have had sorrows?” questioned the lady.

“When I went forth to take the kingship of my island home,” said he, “my life was indeed most bright and joyous; and on a time it befell that I went north to Iceland, and there I met one who (with submission I say it) was not less beautiful than yourself, my lady.  She was the most beauteous damsel that ever came out of the Northland, and her name was Sigrid the Fair.  I married her and we were happy.”