arline seemed to note neither her nor
Osberne, but cried out in a cheerful voice: "Now, child, if I be
somewhat later than I was looked for, yet I have brought the gift of a
guest, seest thou; a good knight who hath of late been brought to
death's door by felon's deed, but is now grown whole and fight-worthy
again. So let us bestir us to get him meat and drink and all that he
needeth."

So they fell to, while Osberne stood where he had first come in; and
he scarce knew where he was, but looked down on the floor, as though
the Sundering Flood of the Dales rolled betwixt him and the maiden;
for indeed when his eyes first fell upon her he knew that it was
Elfhild. Now the two women had not been long at dighting the supper
ere there came a rough knock on the door, and straightway the latch
was lifted and in strode three men-at-arms; two in jack and sallet
with bucklers and sword and dagger, the third a knight clad in white
armour with a white surcoat. This stirred Osberne out of his dream,
and he sat down on a stool nearer in than he had been. The Knight
cried out: "Ho, dame, I see thou hast one guest, and now here be three
more for thee; we have stabled our horses in thy shed already, so thou
hast nought to do save getting us our supper: dispatch I bid thee. And
now who is this tall carle sitting there?"

Osberne knew them at once as they came in, that they were the three
felons who had smitten him in the ghyll. He answered nought, and kept
his hood about his face. "Roger," quoth the knight, "and thou, Simon,
cannot ye get an answer from the lither loon?" Roger lifted up his
foot and kicked Osberne roughly, and Simon laid hold of his hood to
pull it off him, but found it held tight enough; and Osberne spake in
gruff and hollow voice: "I am a living man, ye were best to let me
be."

Then had there been battle at once, but even therewith comes in
Elfhild bearing a pewter measure of wine and beakers withal, and the
newcomers stood staring at her beauty, silent for a minute. Then the
Knight did off his basnet and spake in a loose, licorous voice: "The
liquor we hoped for, but not the cup-bearer; and so it is, that I
would liefer have the cup-bearer than the cup. Fair maid, will not a
kiss go before the pouring out? or never shall I have heart to drink."
And he rose up and went toward the maiden, who stood confused and
trembling, and turned pale. But Osberne had risen also, and with a
quick turn had thrust between the White