h me for telling
this tale?"

"Nay, nay," he said; "how might I live save thou told me everything
that befel thee? Yet I must tell thee that I well-nigh wish I had not
heard this one; for there thou dwellest, with none other to ward thee
than a carline stricken in years; and though I wot well from all thou
hast said of her, and this last tale in special, that she has mickle
might in her, yet she cannot be always with thee, nor belike ever
thinking of thee. God forbid, sweetheart, that I should speak to thee
in the tongue of the courts and the great houses and lords' palaces,
whenas for a fashion of talking they say of their lemans, and they not
always nor often exceeding fair, that they be jewels beyond all price,
whom an host of men were not enough to ward. But this I will say," and
he blushed very red at the word, "that thou art so lovely and so dear
that thy man, thy love, and the stout and good friends who love him,
were not over many for thy guarding even in this lonely place. And
with all that I can be of no more use thereto than if I were a wooden
man."

She stood up also, and he saw that the tears ran over her cheeks, and
he stretched out his arms to her; but she said: "Grieve not too much,
my friend; and know, as thou saidst e'en now of thyself, that these
tears are not wholly for sorrow of thy grief, but O! so much and so
much for joy of thy kindness. And one thing I must tell thee, that if
I am alone in my house, I am at least alone with a friend, and one who
loves me. And this shall come of it, that now every day I shall come
down to the tryst, for the carline will hinder me in no way. But I
know that oft thou wilt come to meet me: yet belike often thou wilt
not, because I wot how thou hast work to do and things wherein folk
call for thee to serve them. So any day if thou come not it shall be
well, and if thou come it shall be better."

Now at last he seemed to be learning the full sweetness of her. But
she held up her band and said: "Now I bid thee tarry no longer, but
fail to and tell me the tale of thy deeds; for soon shall the short
autumn day be waning, and the moment of parting shall steal upon us
ere we be ware." Even so he did now; but at first, to say sooth, he
made but a poor minstrel, so much his mind was turned unto what she
had been telling him; but after a while his scaldship quickened him,
and he told her much in a manner like life, so that she might see the
tidings going on before her. An