was done but to prove thee;
and now thou art proven."

Then again he knelt down before her, and embraced her knees, and again
she raised him up, and let her arm hang down over his shoulder, and her
cheek brush his cheek; and she kissed his mouth and said: "Hereby is all
forgiven, both thine offence and mine; and now cometh joy and merry
days."

Therewith her smiling face grew grave, and she stood before him looking
stately and gracious and kind at once, and she took his hand and said:
"Thou mightest deem my chamber in the Golden House of the Wood
over-queenly, since thou art no masterful man. So now hast thou chosen
well the place wherein to meet me to-day, for hard by on the other side
of the stream is a bower of pleasance, which, forsooth, not every one who
cometh to this land may find; there shall I be to thee as one of the up-
country damsels of thine own land, and thou shalt not be abashed."

She sidled up to him as she spoke, and would he, would he not, her sweet
voice tickled his very soul with pleasure, and she looked aside on him
happy and well-content.

So they crossed the stream by the shallow below the pool wherein Walter
had bathed, and within a little they came upon a tall fence of
flake-hurdles, and a simple gate therein. The Lady opened the same, and
they entered thereby into a close all planted as a most fair garden, with
hedges of rose and woodbine, and with linden-trees a-blossom, and long
ways of green grass betwixt borders of lilies and clove-gilliflowers, and
other sweet garland-flowers. And a branch of the stream which they had
crossed erewhile wandered through that garden; and in the midst was a
little house built of post and pan, and thatched with yellow straw, as if
it were new done.

Then Walter looked this way and that, and wondered at first, and tried to
think in his mind what should come next, and how matters would go with
him; but his thought would not dwell steady on any other matter than the
beauty of the Lady amidst the beauty of the garden; and withal she was
now grown so sweet and kind, and even somewhat timid and shy with him,
that scarce did he know whose hand he held, or whose fragrant bosom and
sleek side went so close to him.

So they wandered here and there through the waning of the day, and when
they entered at last into the cool dusk house, then they loved and played
together, as if they were a pair of lovers guileless, with no fear for
the morrow, and no seeds of en