hear you, and
tames our wild and brutish natures into something worthier and more
seemly." Then Paul thanked the Duke very tenderly, and said that he
would not leave him.

So Paul journeyed alone with an old man-at-arms, whom the Duke sent with
him for his honour and security; and when he arrived at the place, he
lodged at the inn. He found the House of Heritage very desolate,
inhabited only by the ancient maid of Mistress Alison, now grown old and
infirm. So Paul purchased the house and land at the Duke's charges, and
caused it to be repaired, within and without, and hired a gardener to
dress and keep the ground. He was very impatient to be gone, but the
matter could not be speedily settled; and though he desired to return to
Wresting, and to see Margaret, of whom he thought night and day, yet he
found a great spring of tenderness rise up in his heart at the sight of
the old rooms, in which little had been changed. The thought of his
lonely and innocent boyhood came back to him, and he visited all his
ancient haunts, the fields, the wood, and the down. He thought much,
too, of Mistress Alison and her wise and gracious ways; indeed, sitting
alone, as he often did in the old room at evening, it seemed to him
almost as though she sate and watched him, and was pleased to know that
he was famous, and happy in his love; so that it appeared to him as
though she gave him a benediction from some far-off and holy place,
where she abode and was well satisfied.

Then at last he was able to return; but he had been nearly six weeks
away. He had moved into the house and lived there; and it had filled him
with a kind of solemn happiness to picture how he would some day, when
he was free, live there with Margaret for his wife; and perhaps there
would be children too, making the house sweet with their laughter and
innocent games--children who should look at him with eyes like their
mother's. Long hours would pass thus while he sate holding a book or
his lute between his hands, the time streaming past in a happy tide of
thoughts.

But the last night was sad, for he had gone early to his bed, as he was
to start betimes in the morning; and he dreamed that he had gone through
the wood to the Isle of Thorns, and had seen the house stand empty and
shuttered close, with no signs of life about it. In his dream he went
and beat upon the door, and heard his knocks echo in the hall; and just
as he was about to beat again, it was opened to him b