are pleased when one of us joins a group. I have
quite a number of acquaintances I have made in this way while you have
been working away at your Turkish."

"Very well," Gervaise said. "If such is your fancy, Ralph, let us take
one of the paths across the roofs. I might walk there twenty years by
myself without making an acquaintance, and I do not pledge myself to
join in these intimacies of yours. However, I shall be quite content to
amuse myself by looking on at the scene in general, while you are paying
your visits and drinking your sherbet."

"There are plenty of fair girls among the Rhodians," Ralph said, with a
smile; "and though we are pledged to celibacy we are in no way bound to
abstain from admiration."

Gervaise laughed.

"Admire as much as you like, Ralph, but do not expect me to do so. I
have scarcely as much as spoken to a woman since I entered the House in
London, and I should have no idea what to say to a young girl."

"But it is part of the education of a true knight to be courteous to
women. It is one of the great duties of chivalry. And you must remember
that we are secular knights, as well knights of the Order."

"The work of the Order is quite sufficient for me at present, Ralph. In
time I may come to like the society of women, to admire their beauty,
and possibly even to wear the colour of some one, for that seems to be
the fashion; though why we, who are bound to celibacy, should admire one
woman more than another I cannot understand."

They had by this time descended from the castle, and were taking their
way along one of the broad paths that led over the flat roofs of the
houses by means of the bridges thrown across the streets.

"These are some acquaintances of mine," Ralph said, stopping at one of
the walls, some three feet high, that bordered the path.

Beyond was an enclosure of some fifty feet square. Clumps of shrubs and
flowers, surrounded by stonework some eight or ten inches high enclosing
the earth in which they grew, were scattered here and there. Lamps were
hung to cords stretched above it, while others were arranged among the
flowers. In the centre a large carpet was spread, and on this some eight
or ten persons were seated on cushions. A girl was playing a lute, and
another singing to her accompaniment. She stopped abruptly when her eye
fell upon the figures of the two young knights.

"There is Sir Ralph Harcourt, father!" she exclaimed in Italian, which
was the language