Page 371 - A Knight of the White Cross

families in Italy, and I a knight with no possessions save my sword."

"Say not so, Sir Gervaise," she said impetuously. "Are you not a knight on
whom Genoa and Florence have bestowed their citizenship, whom the Holy

Father himself has thanked, who has been honoured by Pisa, and whom
Ferdinand of Naples has created a Knight of the Grand Cross of St.
Michael, whom the grand master has singled out for praise among all the

valiant knights of the Order of St. John, who, as my cousin tells me, saved
him and the fort he commanded from capture, and who stood alone over the

fallen grand master, surrounded by a crowd of foes. How can you speak of
yourself as a simple knight?"

Then she stopped, and sat silent for a minute, while a flush of colour
mounted to her cheeks.

"Give me my gage again, Sir Gervaise," she said gently. In silence Gervaise
removed it from his neck, wondering greatly what could be her intention.

She turned it over and over in her hand.

"Sir Knight," she said, "this was of no great value in my eyes when I
bestowed it upon you; it was a gage, and not a gift. Now it is to me of value
beyond the richest gem on earth; it is a proof of the faith and loyalty of the

knight I most esteem and honour, and so in giving it to you again, I part
with it with a pang, for I have far greater reason to prize it than you can

have. I gave it you before as a girl, proud that a knight who had gained such
honour and applause should wear her favour, and without the thought that
the trinket was a heart. I give it to you now as a woman, far prouder than

before that you should wear her gage, and not blind to the meaning of the
emblem."

Gervaise took her hand as she fastened it round his neck, and kissed it;
then, still holding it, he said, "Do you know what you are doing, Claudia?

You are raising hopes that I have never been presumptuous enough to
cherish."