hould let on that it was his brother's
daughter he had, who was come on a visit to him from another county,
and that he should tell everybody that she was dumb, and do his best to
keep every one away from her. They told the young girl what it was they
intended to do, and she showed by her eyes that she was obliged to them.

Guleesh went home then, and when his people asked him where he had
been, he said that he had been asleep at the foot of the ditch, and had
passed the night there.

There was great wonderment on the priest's neighbours at the girl who
came so suddenly to his house without any one knowing where she was
from, or what business she had there. Some of the people said that
everything was not as it ought to be, and others, that Guleesh was not
like the same man that was in it before, and that it was a great story,
how he was drawing every day to the priest's house, and that the priest
had a wish and a respect for him, a thing they could not clear up at
all.

That was true for them, indeed, for it was seldom the day went by but
Guleesh would go to the priest's house, and have a talk with him, and
as often as he would come he used to hope to find the young lady well
again, and with leave to speak; but, alas! she remained dumb and
silent, without relief or cure. Since she had no other means of
talking, she carried on a sort of conversation between herself and
himself, by moving her hand and fingers, winking her eyes, opening and
shutting her mouth, laughing or smiling, and a thousand other signs, so
that it was not long until they understood each other very well.
Guleesh was always thinking how he should send her back to her father;
but there was no one to go with her, and he himself did not know what
road to go, for he had never been out of his own country before the
night he brought her away with him. Nor had the priest any better
knowledge than he; but when Guleesh asked him, he wrote three or four
letters to the king of France, and gave them to buyers and sellers of
wares, who used to be going from place to place across the sea; but
they all went astray, and never a one came to the king's hand.

This was the way they were for many months, and Guleesh was falling
deeper and deeper in love with her every day, and it was plain to
himself and the priest that she liked him. The boy feared greatly at
last, lest the king should really hear where his daughter was, and take
her back from himself, and he besought