ould not leave him.

So Paul journeyed alone with an old man-at-arms, whom the Duke sent
with him for his honour and security; and when he arrived at the
place, he lodged at the inn. He found the House of Heritage very
desolate, inhabited only by the ancient maid of Mistress Alison, now
grown old and infirm. So Paul purchased the house and land at the
Duke's charges, and caused it to be repaired, within and without, and
hired a gardener to dress and keep the ground. He was very impatient
to be gone, but the matter could not be speedily settled; and though
he desired to return to Wresting, and to see Margaret, of whom he
thought night and day, yet he found a great spring of tenderness rise
up in his heart at the sight of the old rooms, in which little had
been changed. The thought of his lonely and innocent boyhood came back
to him, and he visited all his ancient haunts, the fields, the wood,
and the down. He thought much, too, of Mistress Alison and her wise
and gracious ways; indeed, sitting alone, as he often did in the old
room at evening, it seemed to him almost as though she sate and
watched him, and was pleased to know that he was famous, and happy in
his love; so that it appeared to him as though she gave him a
benediction from some far-off and holy place, where she abode and was
well satisfied.

Then at last he was able to return; but he had been nearly six weeks
away. He had moved into the house and lived there; and it had filled
him with a kind of solemn happiness to picture how he would some day,
when he was free, live there with Margaret for his wife; and perhaps
there would be children too, making the house sweet with their
laughter and innocent games--children who should look at him with eyes
like their mother's. Long hours would pass thus while he sate holding
a book or his lute between his hands, the time streaming past in a
happy tide of thoughts.

But the last night was sad, for he had gone early to his bed, as he
was to start betimes in the morning; and he dreamed that he had gone
through the wood to the Isle of Thorns, and had seen the house stand
empty and shuttered close, with no signs of life about it. In his
dream he went and beat upon the door, and heard his knocks echo in the
hall; and just as he was about to beat again, it was opened to him by
an old small woman, that looked thin and sad, with grey hair and many
wrinkles, whom he did not know. He had thrust past her, though she
seemed to h