, and Ralph told
all that had befallen him as plainly and shortly as he might; and when
he had done, Richard said:

"Thou has had much adventure in a short space, lord, and if thou
mightest now refrain thy longing for that which is gone, and set it on
that which is to come, thou mayest yet harden into a famous knight and
a happy man." Said Ralph: "Yea? now tell me all thy thought."

Said Richard: "My thought is that this lady who was slain, was scarce
wholly of the race of Adam; but that at the least there was some
blending in her of the blood of the fays. Or how deemest thou?"

"I wot not," said Ralph sadly; "to me she seemed but a woman, though
she were fairer and wiser than other women." Said Richard: "Well,
furthermore, if I heard thee aright, there is another woman in the tale
who is also fairer and wiser than other women?"

"I would she were my sister!" said Ralph. "Yea," quoth Richard, "and
dost thou bear in mind what she was like? I mean the fashion of her
body." "Yea, verily," said Ralph.

Again said Richard: "Doth it seem to thee as if the Lady of the Dry
Tree had some inkling that thou shouldst happen upon this other woman:
whereas she showed her of the road to the Well at the World's End, and
gave her that pair of beads, and meant that thou also shouldest go
thither? And thou sayest that she praised her,--her beauty and wisdom.
In what wise did she praise her? how came the words forth from her?
was it sweetly?"

"Like honey and roses for sweetness," said Ralph. "Yea," said Richard,
"and she might have praised her in such wise that the words had came
forth like gall and vinegar. Now I will tell thee of my thought, since
we be at point of sundering, though thou take it amiss and be wroth
with me: to wit, that thou wouldst have lost the love of this lady as
time wore, even had she not been slain: and she being, if no fay, yet
wiser than other women, and foreseeing, knew that so it would be."
Ralph brake in: "Nay, nay, it is not so, it is not so!" "Hearken,
youngling!" quoth Richard; "I deem that it was thus. Her love for thee
was so kind that she would have thee happy after the sundering:
therefore she was minded that thou shouldest find the damsel, who as I
deem loveth thee, and that thou shouldest love her truly."

"O nay, nay!" said Ralph, "all this guess of thine is naught, saying
that she was kind indeed. Even as heaven is kind to them who have died
martyrs, and enter into its bliss a