yes, tottered off
downhill.

XVII

The Lady Elaine knows her Heart

_It was on a dark and stormy midnight, when the thunders boomed and the
dread fury of the lightnings scarred the overhanging cliffs, that the Lady
Elaine at last came to know her heart._

_She was in a cave, safe from all but the noise of the storm. A cheery
fire blazed at her door, and her bed within was made soft with pine boughs
and skins. For weeks they had journeyed here and there, yet there had been
no knight in whose face Elaine could find what she sought._

_As she lay on her couch, she reflected upon the faithful wayfarers who
had travelled with her, who had ever been gentle and courtly, saving her
from all annoyance and all harm. Yet above them all, there was one who,
from the time of their starting, had kept vigilant guard. He was the
humblest of them all, but it was he who made her rest in shady places by
the wayside when she herself scarce knew that she was weary; had given her
cool spring water in a cup cunningly woven of leaves before she had
realised her thirst; had brought her berries and strange, luscious fruits
before she had thought of hunger; and who had cheered her, many a time,
when no one else had guessed that she was sad._

_Outside, he was guarding her now, all heedless of the rain. She could see
him dimly in the shadow, then, all at once, more clearly in the firelight.
His head was bowed and his arms folded, yet in the strong lines of his
body there was no hint of weariness. Well did the Lady Elaine know that
until Dawn spun her web of enchantment upon the mysterious loom of the
East, he would march sleeplessly before her door, replenishing the fire,
listening now and then for her deep breathing, and, upon the morrow, gaily
tell her of his dreams._

_Dreams they were, indeed, but not the dreams of sleep. Upon these
midnight marchings, her sentinel gave his wandering fancy free rein. And
because of the dumb pain in his heart, these fancies were all the merrier;
more golden with the sun of laughter, more gemmed with the pearl of
tears._

_Proud-hearted, yet strangely homesick, the Lady Elaine was restless this
night. "I must go back," she thought, "to the Castle of Content, where my
dear father would fain have his child again. And yet I dread to go back
with my errand undone, my quest unrewarded._

_"What is it," thought Elaine, in sudden self-searching, "that I seek?
What must this man be, to whom I would sur