her; and eager she was
in the chase as the very hounds, heeding nothing the scratching of briars
or the whipping of stiff twigs as she sped on. But for all their eager
hunting, the quarry outran both dogs and folk, and gat him into a great
thicket, amidmost whereof was a wide plash of water. Into the thicket
they followed him, but he took to the water under their eyes and made
land on the other side; and because of the tangle of underwood, he swam
across much faster than they might have any hope to come round on him;
and so were the hunters left undone for that time.

So the Lady cast herself down on the green grass anigh the water, while
Walter blew the hounds in and coupled them up; then he turned round to
her, and lo! she was weeping for despite that they had lost the quarry;
and again did Walter wonder that so little a matter should raise a
passion of tears in her. He durst not ask what ailed her, or proffer her
solace, but was not ill apaid by beholding her loveliness as she lay.

Presently she raised up her head and turned to Walter, and spake to him
angrily and said: "Squire, why dost thou stand staring at me like a
fool?"

"Yea, Lady," he said; "but the sight of thee maketh me foolish to do
aught else but to look on thee."

She said, in a peevish voice: "Tush, Squire, the day is too far spent for
soft and courtly speeches; what was good there is nought so good here.
Withal, I know more of thine heart than thou deemest."

Walter hung down his head and reddened, and she looked on him, and her
face changed, and she smiled and said, kindly this time: "Look ye,
Squire, I am hot and weary, and ill-content; but presently it will be
better with me; for my knees have been telling my shoulders that the cold
water of this little lake will be sweet and pleasant this summer noonday,
and that I shall forget my foil when I have taken my pleasure therein.
Wherefore, go thou with thine hounds without the thicket and there abide
my coming. And I bid thee look not aback as thou goest, for therein were
peril to thee: I shall not keep thee tarrying long alone."

He bowed his head to her, and turned and went his ways. And now, when he
was a little space away from her, he deemed her indeed a marvel of women,
and wellnigh forgat all his doubts and fears concerning her, whether she
were a fair image fashioned out of lies and guile, or it might be but an
evil thing in the shape of a goodly woman. Forsooth, when he saw her
car