d robes of black
fur and strings of great black pearls that, to tell truth, I coveted
sorely?" she asked, laughing a little. "No, no. If this were a
physician, he is of the sort that heals souls. Indeed, now that I think
of it, when I asked him his name and business, he answered that the
first was the Helper, and the second, to bring peace to those in
trouble."

"Well, daughter, and what else did the man say?" asked Sir Andrew,
soothingly.

"You think I wander," she said, interpreting the tone of his voice and
not his words, "but indeed it is not so. Well, he said little; only
that I had been very ill, near to death, in truth, much nearer than I
thought, but that now I should recover and within a day or two be quite
well and strong again. I asked him why he had come to tell me this. He
replied, because he thought that I should like to know that he had met
one whom I loved in the city of Venice in Italy; one who was named Hugh
de Cressi. Yes, Father, he said Hugh de Cressi, who, with his squire, an
archer, had befriended him there--and that this Hugh was well and would
remain so, and that soon I should see him again. Also he added that he
had met one whom I hated, who was named the lord of Cattrina, and
that if this Cattrina threatened me I should do wisely to fly back to
England, since there I should find peace and safety. Then, suddenly,
just before you came in, he was gone."

"You have strange dreams, Eve," said Sir Andrew, "yet there is truth in
their madness. Now be strong lest joy should kill you, as it has done by
many a one before."

Then he turned to the shadow behind him and said, "Come." Next instant
Hugh was kneeling at Eve's bedside and pressing his lips upon her hand.

Oh! they had much to say to each other, so much that the half of it
remained unsaid. Still Hugh learned that she and Sir Andrew had come
to Avignon upon the Pope's summons to lay this matter of her alleged
marriage before him in person. When they reached the town they found it
already in the grip of the great plague, and that to see his Holiness
was almost impossible, since he had shut himself up in his palace and
would admit no one. Yet an interview was promised through Sir Andrew's
high-placed friends, only then the sickness struck Eve and she could not
go, nor was Sir Andrew allowed to do so, since he was nursing one who
lay ill.

Then Hugh began to tell his tale, to which Eve and Sir Andrew Arnold
listened greedily. Of Murgh,