instead of being praised for
having arrived a little too late, I should be rated for not having come
there in time."

Dame Vernon smiled.

"Although you may continue to insist that you are to blame, this does
not alter the fact that you have saved our lives. Is there any way in
which I can be useful to you? Are you discontent with your state? For,
in truth, you look as if Nature had intended you for a gallant soldier
rather than a city craftsman. Earl Talbot, who is my uncle, would, I
am sure, receive you into his following should you so choose it, and I
would gladly pay for the cancelling of your indentures."

"I thank you, indeed, lady, for your kind offices," Walter said
earnestly; "for the present I am well content to remain at my craft,
which is that of an armourer, until, at any rate, I have gained such
manly strength and vigour as would fit me for a man-at-arms, and my good
master, Geoffrey Ward, will, without payment received, let me go when I
ask that grace of him."

"Edith, go and look from the window at the boats passing along the
river; and now," she went on, as the girl had obeyed her orders, "I
would fain ask you more about the interview you overhead in the marshes.
Sir William de Hertford told me of the evidence that you had given
before the justice. It is passing strange that he who incited the other
to the deed should have been by him termed 'Sir Knight'. Maybe it was
merely a nickname among his fellows."

"Before I speak, lady," Walter said quietly, "I would fain know whether
you wish to be assured of the truth. Sometimes, they say, it is wiser to
remain in ignorance; at other times forewarned is forearmed. Frankly, I
did not tell all I know before the court, deeming that peradventure
you might wish to see me, and that I could then tell the whole to your
private ear, should you wish to know it, and you could then bid me
either keep silence or proclaim all I knew when the trial of these
evil-doers comes on."

"You seem to me to be wise beyond your years, young sir," the lady said.

"The wisdom is not mine, lady, but my master's. I took counsel with him,
and acted as he advised me.

"I would fain know all," the lady said. "I have already strange
suspicions of one from whom assuredly I looked not for such evil
designs. It will grieve me to be convinced that the suspicions are well
founded; but it will be better to know the truth than to remain in a
state of doubt."

"The person then was a kni