rmost of the booth, and lo! there was come
Clement Chapman. His heart rose at the sight of him, and he thought of
his kind gossip till he could scarce withhold his tears. But Clement
came to him and cast his arms about him, and kissed him, and said:
"Thou shalt pardon me for this, lord, for it is the kiss of the gossip
which she bade me give thee, if I fell in with thee, as now I have,
praised be the Saints! Yet it irks me that I shall see little more of
thee at this time, for to-morrow early I must needs join myself to my
company; for we are going south awhile to a good town some fifty miles
hence. Nevertheless, if thou dwellest here some eight days I shall see
thee again belike, since thereafter I get me eastward on a hard and
long journey not without peril. How sayest thou?"

"I wot not," quoth Ralph looking at Richard. Said Richard: "Thou mayst
wot well, master Clement, that my lord is anhungered of the praise of
the folks, and is not like to abide in a mere merchant-town till the
mould grow on his back." "Well, well," said Clement, "however that may
be, I have now done my matters with this cloth-lord, Blaise, and he has
my florins in his pouch: so will not ye twain come with me and drink a
cup till he hath done his talk with these magnates?"

Ralph was nothing loth, for besides that he loved master Clement, and
that his being in company was like having a piece of his home anigh
him, he hoped to hear some tidings concerning the Well at the World's
End.

So he and Richard went with master Clement to the Christopher, a fair
ale-house over against the Great Church, and sat down to good wine; and
Ralph asked of Clement many things concerning dame Katherine his
gossip, and Clement told him all, and that she was well, and had been
to Upmeads, and had seen King Peter and the mother of Ralph; and how
she had assuaged his mother's grief at his departure by forecasting
fair days for her son. All this Ralph heard gladly, though he was
somewhat shamefaced withal, and sat silent and thinking of many
matters. But Richard took up the word and said: "Which way camest thou
from Wulstead, master Clement?" "The nighest way I came," said
Clement, "through the Woods Perilous." Said Richard: "And they of the
Dry Tree, heardest thou aught of them?" "Yea, certes," quoth Clement,
"for I fell in with their Bailiff, and paid him due scot for the
passage of the Wood; he knoweth me withal, and we talked together."
"And had he any