of new should add some joy to my heart. So presently I saw that it was
a weaponed man riding a white horse, and anon he had come up to me and
drawn rein before me. I wondered exceedingly at beholding him and the
heart leaped within me at his beauty; for though the carline had told
me of the loveliness of the sons of men, that was but words and I knew
not what they meant; and the others that I had seen were not young men
or goodly, and those last, as I told thee, I could scarce see their
faces.

"And this one was even fairer than the dead woman that I had buried,
whose face was worn with toil and trouble, as now I called to mind. He
was clad in bright shining armour with a gay surcoat of green,
embroidered with flowers over it; he had a light sallet on his head,
and the yellow locks of his hair flowed down from under, and fell on
his shoulders: his face was as beardless as thine, dear friend, but
not clear brown like to thine but white and red like a blossom."

Ralph spake and said: "Belike it was a woman;" and his voice sounded
loud in the quiet place. She smiled on him and kissed his cheek, and
said: "Nay, nay, dear Champion, it is not so. God rest his soul! many
a year he has been dead."

Said Ralph: "Many a year! what meanest thou?" "Ah!" she said, "fear
not! as I am now, so shall I be for thee many a year. Was not thy fear
that I should vanish away or change into something unsightly and
gruesome? Fear not, I say; am I not a woman, and thine own?" And again
she flushed bright red, and her grey eyes lightened, and she looked at
him all confused and shamefaced.

He took her face between his hands and kissed her over and over; then
he let her go, and said: "I have no fear: go on with thy tale, for the
words thereof are as thy kisses to me, and the embracing of thine hands
and thy body: tell on, I pray thee." She took his hand in hers and
spake, telling her tale as before.

"Friend, well-beloved for ever! This fair young knight looked on me,
and as he looked, his face flushed as red as mine did even now. And I
tell thee that my heart danced with joy as I looked on him, and he
spake not for a little while, and then he said: 'Fair maiden, canst
thou tell me of any who will tell me a word of the way to the Well at
the World's End?' I said to him, 'Nay, I have heard the word once and
no more, I know not the way: and I am sorry that I cannot do for thee
that which thou wouldest.' And then I spake again,