of countenances I have the advantage of thee,"
the youth observed.

"I perceive," continued the Father, "that I must instruct thy spirit
in many things,--submission, among others. Therefore thou shalt bide
with us for a month or two."

"That I'll not!" shouted Geoffrey, forgetting his role of prisoner.

"She cannot unlock thee," Father Anselm said, with much art slipping
Elaine into the discourse.

Geoffrey glared at the Abbot, who now hoped to lay a trap for him by
means of his temper. So he went further in the same direction. "Her
words are vainer than most women's," he said; "though a lover would
trust in them, of course."

The knight swelled in his rage, and might have made I know not what
unsafe rejoinder; but the cords that Elaine had wound about him
naturally tightened as he puffed out, and seemed by their pressure to
check his speech and bid him be wary. So he changed his note, and said
haughtily, "Because thy cowl and thy gown shield thee, presume not to
speak of one whose cause I took up in thy presence, and who is as high
above thee in truth as she is in every other quality and virtue."

"This callow talk, my son," said the Abbot quietly, "wearies me much.
Lay thee down and sleep thy sulks off, if thou art able." Upon this,
he turned away to the closet where hung the brass keys, and opened the
door a-crack. He saw the hide of the crocodile leaning against it, and
the overturned cups. "Just as that boy Hubert packed them," he thought
to himself in satisfaction; "no one has been prying here. I flatter
myself upon a skilful morning's work. I have knocked the legend out of
the Baron's head. He'll see to it the girl keeps away. And as for yon
impudent witling in the cage, we shall transport him beyond the seas,
if convenient; if not, a knife in his gullet will make him forget the
Dragon of Wantley. Truly, I am master of the situation!" And as his
self-esteem grew, the Grand Marshal rubbed his hands, and went out of
the hall, too much pleased with himself to notice certain little drops
of wine dotted here and there close by the closet, and not yet quite
dry, which, had his eye fallen upon them, might have set him
a-thinking.

So Geoffrey was left in his prison to whatever comfort meditation
might bring him; and the monks of Oyster-le-Main took off their gowns,
and made themselves ready for another visit to the wine-cellars of
Wantley Manor.

The day before Christmas came bleakly to its end over dingle and