ever--that is--papa
would not feel bound by his promise simply because you did that. There
must be a dragon somehow."

"How can there be a dragon if there is not a dragon?" asked Geoffrey.

"Wait, wait, Geoffrey! Oh, how can I think of everything all at
once?" and Elaine pressed her hands to her temples.

"Darling," said the knight, with his arms once more around her, "let
us fly now."

"Now? They would catch us at once."

"Catch us! not they! with my sword----"

"Now, Geoffrey, of course you are brave. But do be sensible. You are
only one. No! I won't even argue such nonsense. They must never know
about what we have been doing up here; and you must go back into that
cage at once."

"What, and be locked up, and perhaps murdered to-night, and never see
your face again?"

"But you shall see me again, and soon. That is what I am thinking
about."

"How can you come in here, Elaine?"

"You must come to me. I have it! To-night, at half-past eleven, come
to the cellar-door at the Manor, and I will be there to let you in.
Then we can talk over everything quietly. I have no time to think
now."

"The cellar! at the Manor! And how, pray, shall I get out of that
cage?"

"Cannot you jump from the little window at the back?"

Geoffrey ran in to see. "No," he said, returning; "it is many spans
from the earth."

Elaine had hurried into the closet, whence she returned with a dusty
coil of rope. "Here, Geoffrey; quickly! put it about your waist. Wind
it so. But how clumsy you are!"

He stood smiling down at her, and she very deftly wound the cord up
and down, over and over his body, until its whole length lay
comfortably upon him.

"Now, your breast-plate, quick!"

She helped him put his armour on again; and, as they were engaged at
that, singing voices came up the stairs from the distant dining-hall.

"The Grace," she exclaimed; "they will be here in a moment."

Geoffrey took a last kiss, and bolted into his cage. She, with the
keys, made great haste to push the crocodile and other objects once
more into their hiding-place. Cups and flagons and all rattled back
without regard to order, as they had already been flung not two hours
before. The closet-door shut, and Elaine hung the keys from the lock
as she had found them.

"Half-past eleven," she said to Geoffrey, as she ran by his cage
towards the stairs.

"One more, darling,--please, one! through the bars!" he besought her,
in a voice so tender, that for m