alter should withdraw. So Walter knelt again and kissed the king's
ring, and left the chamber.

When Walter came out he seemed to tread on air; the king's gracious
kindness moved him very greatly, and loyalty filled his heart to the
brim. He found the priest and the Lord Poynings waiting for him; and
presently the two left the palace together, and Walter told the priest
what the king had said.

The next day he rode back into Sussex; but he was very sorely beset
as he rode, and reached home in great misery. But he wasted no time,
but rather went to his new task with great eagerness; the foundations
of the church were laid, and soon the walls began to rise. Meanwhile
Walter had the gold conveyed to the king's Mint; and a message came to
him that it would make near upon twenty thousand pounds of gold, a
fortune for an earl. So the church was built very massive and great,
and a rich estate was bought which would support a college of priests.
But Walter's heart was very heavy; for his terrors still came over him
from day to day; and he was no nearer settling his own affairs.

Then there began to come to him a sore temptation; he could build his
church, and endow his college with lands, and yet he could save
something of the treasure to set him free from his own poverty; and
day by day this wrought more and more in his mind.

At last one day when he was wandering through the wood, he found
himself face to face in the path with Marjory herself; and there was
so tender a look in her face that he could no longer resist, so he
turned and walked with her, and told her all that was in his heart.
"It was all for the love of you," he said, "that I have thus been
punished, and now I am no nearer the end;" and then, for he saw that
she wept, and that she loved him well, he opened to her his heart, and
said that he would keep back part of the treasure, and would save his
house, and that they would be wed; and so he kissed her on the lips.

But Marjory was a true-hearted and wise maiden, and loved Walter
better than he knew; and she said to him, all trembling for pity,
"Dear Walter, it cannot be; this must be given faithfully, because you
are the king's servant, and because you must give the spirit back his
own, and because you are he that I love the best; and we will wait;
for God tells me that it must be so; and He is truer even than love."

So Walter was ashamed; and he threw unworthy thoughts away; and with
the last of the mone