ed now that the first
joy of our meeting, when his youth sprang up in him once more, was
over, he found it hard to talk freely with me, and was downcast and shy
before me, as if something had come betwixt us, which had made our
lives cold to each other.

"So that day we left the House of the Sorceress, which I shall not see
again, till I come there hand in hand with thee, beloved. When we came
to the peopled parts, Geoffrey and his sons brought me to the Land of
Abundance, and I found it all as he had said to me: and I took up my
dwelling in the castle, and despised not those few folk of the land,
but was kind to them: but though they praised my gifts, and honoured
me as the saints are honoured, and though they loved me, yet it was
with fear, so that I had little part with them. There I dwelt then;
and the book which thou didst read there, part true and part false, and
altogether of malice against me, I bought of a monk who came our way,
and who at first was sore afeared when he found that he had come to my
castle. As to the halling of the Chamber of Dais, I have told thee
before how my lord, the King's Son, did do make it in memory of the
wilderness wherein he found me, and the life of thralldom from which he
brought me. There I dwelt till nigh upon these days in peace and
quiet: not did I go to the Dry Tree for a long while, though many of
them sought to me there at the Castle of Abundance; and, woe worth the
while! there was oftenest but one end to their guesting, that of all
gifts, they besought me but of one, which, alack! I might not give
them: and that is the love that I have given to thee, beloved.--And,
oh! my fear, that it will weigh too light with thee, to win me pardon
of thee for all that thou must needs pardon me, ere thou canst give me
all thy love, that I long for so sorely."

CHAPTER 9

They Go On Their Way Once More

"Look now," she said, "I have held thee so long in talk, that the
afternoon is waning; now is it time for us to be on the way again; not
because I misdoubt me of thy foeman, but because I would take thee to a
fairer dwelling of the desert, and one where I have erst abided; and
moreover, there thou shalt not altogether die of hunger. See, is it
not as if I had thought to meet thee here?"

"Yea, in good sooth," said he, "I wot that thou canst see the story of
things before they fall."

She laughed and said: "But all this that hath befallen since I set out
to meet thee