rf had been courteous to him after his kind,
and had done him good and not harm. But of the happening on the Wretch
and the Thing, whereof the dwarf spake, he was yet somewhat afeard.

After he had gone a while and whenas the summer morn was at its
brightest, he saw a little way ahead a grey rock rising up from amidst of
a ring of oak-trees; so he turned thither straightway; for in this plain-
land he had seen no rocks heretofore; and as he went he saw that there
was a fountain gushing out from under the rock, which ran thence in a
fair little stream. And when he had the rock and the fountain and the
stream clear before him, lo! a child of Adam sitting beside the fountain
under the shadow of the rock. He drew a little nigher, and then he saw
that it was a woman, clad in green like the sward whereon she lay. She
was playing with the welling out of the water, and she had trussed up her
sleeves to the shoulder that she might thrust her bare arms therein. Her
shoes of black leather lay on the grass beside her, and her feet and legs
yet shone with the brook.

Belike amidst the splashing and clatter of the water she did not hear him
drawing nigh, so that he was close to her before she lifted up her face
and saw him, and he beheld her, that it was the maiden of the thrice-seen
pageant. She reddened when she saw him, and hastily covered up her legs
with her gown-skirt, and drew down the sleeves over her arms, but
otherwise stirred not. As for him, he stood still, striving to speak to
her; but no word might he bring out, and his heart beat sorely.

But the maiden spake to him in a clear sweet voice, wherein was now no
trouble: "Thou art an alien, art thou not? For I have not seen thee
before."

"Yea," he said, "I am an alien; wilt thou be good to me?"

She said: "And why not? I was afraid at first, for I thought it had been
the King's Son. I looked to see none other; for of goodly men he has
been the only one here in the land this long while, till thy coming."

He said: "Didst thou look for my coming at about this time?"

"O nay," she said; "how might I?"

Said Walter: "I wot not; but the other man seemed to be looking for me,
and knew of me, and he brought me bread to eat."

She looked on him anxiously, and grew somewhat pale, as she said: "What
other one?"

Now Walter did not know what the dwarf might be to her, fellow-servant or
what not, so he would not show his loathing of him; but answered wisely:
"The