hat place where Olaf and I had been so nearly
slain, thinking of that night and of many other days, and then I
heard a footstep coming through the wood, and turned to see who it
might be, for I had never met any other in the haunted place.

And there came towards me slowly a white-robed maiden who looked
steadfastly at me, saying nought. And I thought that surely she was
the White Lady of the Mere. The shadows flickered across her face
and dress, and in her hand she bore a basket with crimson leaves
and the like.

And then I saw that surely this was Hertha coming to meet me as in
the old days when I had waited for her here--Hertha grown older,
and changed; but yet as I saw her here in the old place one could
not but know her, and half I cried out her name, and then stayed
with my heart beating fast.

For as she came into the clearing and was close to me she held out
her hands, and the basket fell at her feet, and lo! it was Uldra,
whom I loved--and Uldra was Hertha--and I had in my arms all that I
longed for, and my trouble was gone for evermore.

"How was it that you knew me not before this?" she asked presently,
while we walked together to Wormingford to find Ailwin. They had
but come back that morning.

"Always have I seemed to know you well," I said, "but first the
sisters' dress, and then that I looked not for Hertha in London,
prevented me. And so I grew to know your looks and ways as Uldra,
whom I grew to love. Then all thought of the old likeness that
puzzled me at first was forgotten. There is no wonder in it, for
you have grown from childhood to womanhood since we fled from
Bures, and I have gone through much that blotted your face from my
mind. Rather do I wonder where you have been all this time."

"One secret I may not tell you today," she said; "and that is where
our safest hiding place has been in sorest peril. Some day I will
show it you, for it is not far. But for long did Gunnhild and I
dwell with her brother in the forest and marsh fastnesses beyond
the Colne. There one might take to the woods when prowling Danes
were near, though it was but twice, and but for a few hours then,
that we had to do so. There was little or no danger there when the
host passed on. Some day shall you and I ride to that quiet
farmstead, for I love the kindly folk who cared for me so well."

Then I said, and my words came to pass afterwards:

"If they will, they shall have my best farm here for their own,
that they