d's End, but no woman; forsooth, if a woman have them of a
woman, or the like of them, (for there be others,) they may serve her
for a token; but will be no talisman or leading-stone to her; and this
I tell thee lest thou seek to the Well on the strength of them. For I
bid thee give them to a man that thou lovest--that thou lovest well,
when he is in most need; only he shall not be of thine own blood. This
is all that I lay upon thee; and if thou do it, thou shalt thrive, and
if thou do it not, thou shalt come to harm. And I will tell thee now
that this meeting betwixt us is not by chance-hap, but of my bringing
about; for I have laboured to draw thee to me, knowing that thou alone
of women would avail me herein. Now shalt thou go home to thine
hostel, and take this for a token of my sooth-saying. The wise merchant
who led thee unto me is abiding thine homecoming that he may have of
thee that which thou promisedst to him. If then thou find him at thine
hostel, and he take thee by the hand and lead thee to bed, whereas
Clement is away till to-morrow even, then shalt thou call me a vain
word-spinner and a liar; but if when thou comest home there, the folk
there say to thee merchant Valerius is ridden away hastily, being
called afar on a message of life and death, then shalt thou trow in me
as a wise woman. Herewith depart, and I bid thee farewell.'

"So I went my ways to my hostel trembling, and at the door I met the
chamberlain, who said to me, 'Lady, the merchant Valerius hath been
here seeking thee, and he said that he would abide thy coming; but
amidst of his abiding cometh a man who would speak to him privily;
whereof it came that he called for his horse and bade me tell thee,
Lady, that he was summoned on a matter of life and death, and would
return to kiss thine hands in five days' space.'

"So I wotted that the woman had spoken sooth, and was wise and
foreseeing, and something of a dread of her came upon me. But the next
even back cometh Clement, and the day after we rode away from Sarras
the Holy, and Valerius I saw never again. And as to the beads, there
is nought to tell of them till they came into thine hands; and
something tells me that it was the will of the Wise Woman that to no
other hands they should come."

Here Katherine made an end, and both the men sat pondering her tale a
little. As for Ralph, he deemed it certain that the Wise Woman of
Sarras would be none other than she who had taught lo