I
walked across the pasture towards the path that led winding among the
alders to the brook below. I followed it in the deepening evening light
and sat down on a log, watching the water swirling through the flat
stepping-stones where trout were swarming, leaping for the tiny winged
creatures that drifted across the dusky water. And as I sat there I
became aware of sounds like voices; and at first, seeing no one, I
thought the noises came from the low bubbling monotone of the stream.
Then I heard a voice murmuring: "I will do what you ask me--I will do
everything you desire."

Fearful of eavesdropping, I rose, peering ahead to make myself known,
but saw nothing in the deepening dusk. On the point of calling, the
words died on my lips as the same voice sounded again, close to me:

"I pray you let me have my way. I will obey you. How can you doubt it?
But I must obey in my own way."

And Sir George's deep, pleasant voice answered: "There is danger to you
in this. I could not endure that, Magdalen."

They were on a path parallel to the trail in which I stood, separated
from me by a deep fringe of willow. I could not see them, though now
they were slowly passing abreast of me.

"What do you care for a maid you so easily persuade?" she asked, with a
little laugh that rang pitifully false in the dusk.

"It is her own merciful heart that persuades her," he said, under his
breath.

"I think my heart is merciful," she said--"more merciful than even I
knew. The restless blood in me set me afire when I saw the wrong done to
these patient people of the Long House.... And when they appealed to me
I came here to justify them, and bid them stand for their own
hearths.... And now you come, teaching me the truth concerning right and
wrong, and how God views justice and injustice; and how this tempest,
once loosened, can never be chained until innocent and guilty are alike
ingulfed.... I am very young to know all these things without
counsel.... I needed aid--and wisdom to teach me--your wisdom. Now, in
my turn, I shall teach; but you must let me teach in my way. There is
only one way that the Long House can be taught.... You do not believe
it, but in this I am wiser than you--I know."

"Will you not tell me what you mean to do, Magdalen?"

"No, Sir George."

"When will you tell me?"

"Never. But you will know what I have done. You will see that I hold
three nations back. What else can you ask? I shall obey you. What more
i