Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/284

Rh Superior is pleased to grant your prayer; and we will lodge you and give you food, if you will shoot and fish and labour in the marshes, as you have said till our buttery be stocked and our waters be well netted."

Erceldoune bent his head, so that the rush of vivid joy that flushed bis face should not betray him.

I will labour for you, father, night and day if you will," he said, briefly.

Would he not have laboured like a galley-slave through summer drought and winter chills if, by his labour, he could have bought one smile from her or spared her a moment's pang! Then, without more words, he loaded, fired, and brought down a wild swan on the wing. "Fetch it," he said to Sulla; the hound had been bred to retrieve, and the bird in ten seconds was laid at his feet. "Chee-e-e!" murmured the Benedictine, ruffling the snowy plumage and thinking longingly of the savoury stew that would vary their refectory fare that night, while he stared at the barcarolo as at a stranger from some unknown world. "You are a wonderful shot, my friend. If you go on like that, we shall have the best of the bargain, as you said, for you will find but sorry lodgment