r I thought that I might find thee here
or hereby.' Then a thought came into my mind, and I said: 'Else maybe
thou hadst found what thou soughtest, and overcome the evil things.'
'Maybe,' he said; 'it is now but a little matter.'"

"As for me, I could have no guess at what were the better things he had
meant for me, and my heart was full of joy, and all seemed better than
well. And we talked together long till the day was gone. Then we
kissed and embraced each other in the Dale of Lore, and the darkness of
summer seemed but short for our delight."

CHAPTER 6

The Lady Tells Somewhat of Her Doings After She Left the Wilderness

Ralph stayed her speech now, and said: "When I asked of thee in the
Land of Abundance, there were some who seemed to say that thou hast let
more men love thee than one: and it was a torment to me to think that
even so it might be. But now when thine own mouth telleth me of one of
them it irks me little. Dost thou think it little-hearted in me?"

"O friend," she said, "I see that so it is with thee that thou wouldst
find due cause for loving me, whatever thou foundest true of me. Or
dost thou deem that I was another woman in those days? Nay, I was not:
I can see myself still myself all along the way I have gone." She was
silent a little, and then she said: "Fear not, I will give thee much
cause to love me. But now I know thy mind the better, I shall tell
thee less of what befell me after I left the wilderness; for whatever I
did and whatever I endured, still it was always I myself that was
there, and it is me that thou lovest. Moreover, my life in the
wilderness is a stranger thing to tell thee of than my dealings with
the folk, and with Kings and Barons and Knights. But thereafter thou
shalt hear of me what tales thou wilt of these matters, as the days and
the years pass over our heads.

"Now on the morrow we would not depart at once, because there we had
some victual, and the king's son was not yet so well fed as he should
be; so we abode in that fair place another day, and then we went our
ways westward, according to the rede of the carline; and it was many
days before we gat us out of the wilderness, and we were often hard put
to it for victual; whiles I sat behind my knight a-horseback, whiles he
led the beast while I rode alone, and not seldom I went afoot, and that
nowise slowly, while he rode the white horse, for I was as light-foot
then as now.

"And of the way we