ad, he threw back the long elf locks that
had fallen over his eyes while his head was bent down, and went on as
before:

"The knight passed his hand across his brow, as if to clear away some
mist that had gathered there, and said, in a deep murmurous voice, 'Why
the last time, dearest, why the last time? Know you not how long a time
remains yet? the old man came last night to the ivory house and told me
it would be a hundred years, ay, more, before the happy end.' 'So long,'
she said; 'so long: ah! love, what things words are; yet this is the last
time; alas! alas! for the weary years! my words, my sin!' 'O love, it is
very terrible,' he said; 'I could almost weep, old though I am, and grown
cold with dwelling in the ivory house: O, Ella, if you only knew how cold
it is there, in the starry nights when the north wind is stirring; and
there is no fair colour there, nought but the white ivory, with one
narrow line of gleaming gold over every window, and a fathom's-breadth of
burnished gold behind the throne. Ella, it was scarce well done of you
to send me to the ivory house.' 'Is it so cold, love?' she said, 'I knew
it not; forgive me! but as to the matter of a witness, some one we must
have, and why not this man?' 'Rather old Hugh,' he said, 'or Cuthbert,
his father; they have both been witnesses before.' 'Cuthbert,' said the
maiden, solemnly, 'has been dead twenty years; Hugh died last night.'"
(Now, as Giles said these words, carelessly, as though not heeding them
particularly, a cold sickening shudder ran through the other two men, but
he noted it not and went on.) "'This man then be it,' said the knight,
and therewith they turned again, and moved on side by side as before; nor
said they any word to me, and yet I could not help following them, and we
three moved on together, and soon I saw that my nature was changed, and
that I was invisible for the time; for, though the sun was high, I cast
no shadow, neither did any man that we past notice us, as we made toward
the hill by the riverside.

"And by the time we came there the queen was sitting at the top of it,
under a throne of purple and gold, with a great band of knights
gloriously armed on either side of her; and their many banners floated
over them. Then I felt that those two had left me, and that my own right
visible nature was returned; yet still did I feel strange, and as if I
belonged not wholly to this earth. And I heard one say, in a low voice
to