it is you, Thomas,' she said, blushing as she spoke. 'I thought you
were not--I mean that I am going home as it grows late. But say, why do
you run so fast, and what has happened to you, Thomas, that your arm is
bloody and you carry a sword in your hand?'

'I have no breath to speak yet,' I answered. 'Come back to the hawthorns
and I will tell you.'

'No, I must be wending homewards. I have been among the trees for more
than an hour, and there is little bloom upon them.'

'I could not come before, Lily. I was kept, and in a strange manner.
Also I saw bloom as I ran.'

'Indeed, I never thought that you would come, Thomas,' she answered,
looking down, 'who have other things to do than to go out maying like a
girl. But I wish to hear your story, if it is short, and I will walk a
little way with you.'

So we turned and walked side by side towards the great pollard oaks,
and by the time that we reached them, I had told her the tale of the
Spaniard, and how he strove to kill me, and how I had beaten him with my
staff. Now Lily listened eagerly enough, and sighed with fear when she
learned how close I had been to death.

'But you are wounded, Thomas,' she broke in; 'see, the blood runs fast
from your arm. Is the thrust deep?'

'I have not looked to see. I have had no time to look.'

'Take off your coat, Thomas, that I may dress the wound. Nay, I will
have it so.'

So I drew off the garment, not without pain, and rolled up the shirt
beneath, and there was the hurt, a clean thrust through the fleshy part
of the lower arm. Lily washed it with water from the brook, and bound it
with her kerchief, murmuring words of pity all the while. To say truth,
I would have suffered a worse harm gladly, if only I could find her to
tend it. Indeed, her gentle care broke down the fence of my doubts and
gave me a courage that otherwise might have failed me in her presence.
At first, indeed, I could find no words, but as she bound my wound,
I bent down and kissed her ministering hand. She flushed red as the
evening sky, the flood of crimson losing itself at last beneath her
auburn hair, but it burned deepest upon the white hand which I had
kissed.

'Why did you do that, Thomas?' she said, in a low voice.

Then I spoke. 'I did it because I love you, Lily, and do not know how to
begin the telling of my love. I love you, dear, and have always loved as
I always shall love you.'

'Are you so sure of that, Thomas?' she said, again.

'T