hardly please." "Nay," said the Lady
Beckwith, "but this was a nightingale that knew the power of song, and
could touch all hearts except his own; and thus, finding love so simple
a thing to win, doubtless holds it light." "Nay," said Paul, "he holds
it not light; it is too heavy for him; he knows it too well to trifle
with it."

Then finding that the rest were silent, they two were silent. And so
they held broken discourse; and ever the young Knight spoke in
Margaret's ear, so that Paul was much distraught, but dared not seem to
intervene, or to speak with the maiden, when he had held aloof so long.

Presently the Lady Beckwith said she had a boon to ask, and that she
would drop her parables. And she said that her daughter Helen, that was
sick, had been very envious of them, because she had not heard his
songs, but only a soft echo of them through the chamber floor. "And
perhaps, Sir Paul," she said, "if you will not come for friendship, you
will come for mercy; and sing to my poor child, who has but few joys, a
song or twain." Then Paul's heart danced within him, and he said, "I
will come to-morrow." And soon after that the Duke went out and the
guests dispersed; and then Paul greeted the Lady Margaret, and said a
few words to her; but he could not please himself in what he said; and
that night he slept little, partly for thinking of what he might have
said: but still more for thinking that he would see her on the morrow.

So when the morning came, Paul went very swiftly through the forest to
the Isle of Thorns. It was now turning fast to winter, and the trees had
shed their leaves. The forest was all soft and brown, and the sky was a
pearly grey sheet of high cloud; but a joy as of spring was in Paul's
heart, and he smiled and sang as he went, though he fell at times into
sudden silences of wonder and delight. When he arrived, the Lady
Beckwith greeted him very lovingly, and presently led him into a small
chamber that seemed to be an oratory. Here was a little altar very
seemly draped, with stools for kneeling, and a chair or two. Near the
altar, at the side, was a little door in the wall behind a hanging; the
Lady Beckwith pulled the hanging aside, and bade Paul to follow; he
found himself in a small arched recess, lit by a single window of
coloured glass, that was screened from a larger room, of which it was a
part, by a curtain. The Lady Beckwith bade Paul be seated, and passed
beyond the curtain for an instant.