And you know her face, belike, from my poor
picture of my lady."

Charlotte looked at me steadily, and flushed red; but even then, one who
rode by among the men-at-arms noted me, and, waving his arm towards me,
cried in a loud voice--

"Hail, fair son, soon will I be with thee!" and so, turning in his saddle
to watch me, he laughed a loud laugh and rode onwards. He was my master,
and as my eyes followed him, Charlotte spoke.

"And who is that great Scot, with his Scots twang of the tongue, who
called you 'son'? By the Mass, she was your lady, and yonder wight is
her father, of whom you have spoken to me more than once"; for, indeed, I
had told her all the story of my loves.

Then I was confused, for I could no longer deny the truth, and not having
one word to say, I sighed from my heart.

"O faint-spirited man-at-arms!" cried Charlotte, blushing, and laughing
as if some exquisite jest were abroad. "Do you so terribly dread your
mistress's anger? Nay, be of good cheer! Me she will never forgive
while the world stands; for have I not been your nurse, and won you back
to life and to her service? And has she not seen us twain together in
one place, and happy, because of the coming of the Maid? She will pardon
me never, because, also for my sake, she has been wroth with you, and
shown you her wrath, and all without a cause. Therefore she will be
ashamed, and all the more cruel. Nay, nor would I forgive her, in the
same case, if it befell me, for we women are all alike, hearts of wolves
when we love! Hast thou never marked a cat that had kittens, or a
brachet that had whelps, how they will fly at man or horse that draws
near their brood, even unwittingly. And so, when we love, are we all,
and the best of us are then the worst. Verily the friendship of you and
me is over and done; but for your part be glad, not sorry, for with all
her heart and soul she loves you. Else she had not been angered."

"You must not speak, nor I hear, such words of my lady," I said; "it is
not seemly."

"Such words of your lady, and of Aymeric's lady, and of Giles's lady, and
of myself were I any man's lady, as I am no man's lady, I will think and
speak," said Charlotte, "for my words are true, and we maids are, at
best, pretty fools, and God willed us to be so for a while, and then to
be wiser than the rest of you. For, were we not pretty, would you wed
us? and were we not fools, would we wed you? and where would God's world