tared wild at me,
and I deemed that tears began to come into his eyes; but I said again:
'What betid to dame Joyce's youngest born, the fair little maiden that
we left sick of a fever when we rode to Up-castle?' Still he said
naught but looked at me wondering: and said: 'Hast thou ever again
seen that great old oak nigh the clearing by the water, the half of
which fell away in the summer-storm of that last July?'

"Then verily the tears gushed out of his eyes, and he wept, for as old
as he was; and when he could master himself he said: 'Who art thou?
Who art thou? Art thou the daughter of my Lady, even as these are my
sons?' But I said: 'Now will I answer thy first question, and tell
thee that the Lady thou seekest is verily alive; and she has thriven,
for she has drunk of the Well at the World's End, and has put from her
the burden of the years. O Geoffrey, and dost thou not know me?' And
I held out my hand to him, and I also was weeping, because of my
thought of the years gone by; for this old man had been that swain who
had nigh died for me when I fled with my husband from the old king; and
he became one of the Dry Tree, and had followed me with kind service
about the woods in the days when I was at my happiest.

"But now he fell on his knees before me not like a vassal but like a
lover, and kissed my feet, and was beside himself for joy. And his
sons, who were men of some forty summers, tall and warrior-like, kissed
my hands and made obeisance before me.

"Now when we had come to ourselves again, old Geoffrey, who was now
naught but glad, spake and said: 'It is told amongst us that when our
host departed from the Land of the Tower, after thou hadst taken thy
due seat upon the throne, that thou didst promise our chieftains how
thou wouldst one day come back to the fellowship of the Dry Tree and
dwell amongst us. Wilt thou now hold to thy promise?' I said: 'O
Geoffrey, if thou art the last of those seekers, and thou wert but a
boy when I dwelt with you of old, who of the Dry Tree is left to
remember me?' He hung his head awhile then, and spake: 'Old are we
grown, yet art thou fittest to be amongst young folk: unless mine eyes
are beguiled by some semblance which will pass away presently.' 'Nay,'
quoth I, 'it is not so; as I am now, so shall I be for many and many a
day.' 'Well,' said Geoffrey, 'wherever thou mayst be, thou shalt be
Queen of men.'

"'I list not to be Queen again,' said I. He laughed an