esponse to his own earnest petition.

When at length Mora stood up, stretching her arms above her head and
straightening her supple limbs:

"My beloved," he said, "if the vision had not been given, wouldst thou
not have come to me? Should I have had to ride away from Worcester
alone?"

Standing beside him, she answered, tenderly:

"Dear Hugh, my most faithful and loyal Knight, being here--and oh so
glad to be here--how can I say it? Yet I must answer truly. But for
the vision, I should not have come. I could not have broken my vows.
No blessing would have followed had I come to you, trailing broken
vows, like chains behind me. But our Lady herself set me free and bid
me go. Therefore I came to you; and therefore am I here."

"Tell me again the words our Lady said, when she put thy hand in mine."

"Our Lady said: 'Take her. She hath been ever thine. I have but kept
her for thee.'"

Then she paled, her heart began to beat fast, and the colour came and
went in her cheeks; for he had come very near, and she could hear the
sharp catch of his breath.

"Mora, my beloved," he said, "every fibre of my being cries out for
thee. Yet I want thy happiness before my own; and, above and beyond
all else, I want the Madonna in my home. Even at our Lady's bidding I
cannot take thee. Not until thine own sweet lips shall say: 'Take me!
I have been ever thine.'"

She lifted her eyes to his. In the moonlight, her face seemed almost
unearthly, in its pure loveliness; and, as on that night so long ago,
he saw her eyes, brighter than any jewels, shining with love and tears.

"Dear man of mine," she whispered, "to-night we are betrothed. But
to-morrow I will ride home with thee. To-morrow shall be indeed our
bridal day. I will say all--I will say anything--I will say everything
thou wilt! Nay, see! The dawn is breaking in the east. Call it
'to-day'--TO-DAY, dear Knight! But now let me flee away, to fathom my
strange happiness alone. Then, to sleep in mine own chamber, and to
awake refreshed, and ready to go with thee, Hugh, when and where and
how thou wilt."

The Knight folded his arms across his breast.

"Go," he said, softly, "and our Lady be with thee. Our spirits
to-night have had their fill of holy happiness. I ask no higher joy
than to watch the breaking of the day which gives thee to me, knowing
thee to be safely sleeping in thy chamber below."

"I love thee!" she whispered; and fled.

Hugh d'Arge