ll, and better all the
deeds of thy father. Meseemeth this will be more meet for thee than
the casting away of thy life in seeking a woman, who maybe will be
naught to thee when thou hast found her; or in chasing some castle in
the clouds, that shall be never the nigher to thee, how far soever thou
farest. For now I tell thee that I have known this while how thou art
seeking the Well at the World's End; and who knoweth that there is any
such thing on the earth? Come, then, thou art fair, and young, and
strong; and if ye seek wealth thou shalt have it, and my furtherance to
the utmost, if that be aught worth. Bethink thee, child, there are
they that love thee in Upmeads and thereabout, were it but thy gossip,
my wife, dame Katherine."

Said Ralph: "Master Clement, I thank thee for all that thou hast said,
and thy behest, and thy deeds. Thy rede is good, and in all ways will
I follow it save one; to wit, that if I have not found the damsel ere
ye turn back, I must needs abide in this land searching for her. And I
pray the pardon both of thee and of thy gossip, if I answer not your
love as ye would, and perchance as I should. Yea, and of Upmeads also
I crave pardon. But in doing as I do, my deed shall be but according
to the duty bounden on me by mine oath, when Duke Osmond made me knight
last year, in the church of St. Laurence of Upmeads."

Said Clement: "I see that there is something else in it than that; I
see thee to be young, and that love and desire bind thee in closer
bonds than thy knightly oath. Well, so it must be, and till thou hast
her, there is but one woman in the world for thee."

"Nay, it is not so, Master Clement," said Ralph, "and I will tell thee
this, so that thou mayst trow my naysay; since I departed from Upmeads,
I have been taken in the toils of love, and desired a fair woman, and I
have won her and death hath taken her. Trowest thou my word?"

"Yea," said Clement, "but to one of thy years love is not plucked up by
the root, and it soon groweth again." Then said Ralph, sadly: "Now
tell my gossip of this when thou comest home." Clement nodded yeasay,
and Ralph spake again in a moment: "And now will I begin my search in
Goldburg by praying thee to bring me to speech of merchants and others
who may have seen or heard tidings of my damsel."

He looked at Clement anxiously as he spoke; and Clement smiled, for he
said to himself that looking into Ralph's heart on this matter was like
lo