."

Hugh paused, looking upon her with a half-wistful smile. She made no
answer; so presently he continued.

"I have planned that, each day, Mistress Deborah, with the baggage and
a good escort, shall go by the most direct route, and the best road.
Thus thou and I will be free to ride as we will, visiting places we
have known of old and which it may please thee to see again. To-day we
can ride out by Kenilworth, and so on our first stage northward.
Martin will take Mistress Deborah on a pillion behind him. Should she
weary of travelling so, she can have a seat in the cart with the
baggage. But they tell me she travels bravely on horseback. We will
send them on ahead of us, and on arrival all will be in readiness for
thee. If this weather holds, we shall ride each day through a world of
sunshine and beauty; and each day's close, my wife, will find us one
day nearer home. Does this please thee? Have I thought of all?"

Rising, she came and stood beside him in the entrance to the arbour.

A golden rose, dipping from above, rested against her hair.

Her eyes were soft with tears.

"So perfectly have you thought and planned, dear faithful Knight, that
I think our blessed Lady must have guided you. As we ride out into the
sunshine, I shall grow used to the great world once more; and you will
have patience and will teach me things I have perhaps forgot."

She hesitated; half put out her hands; but his not meeting them, folded
them on her breast.

"Hugh, it seems hard that I should clip your splendid wings; but--oh,
Hugh! Think you the heart of a nun can ever become again as the heart
of other women?"

"Heaven forbid!" said the Knight, fervently, thinking of Eleanor and
Alfrida.

And, as leaving the arbour they walked together over the lawn, she
smiled, remembering, how that morning the Bishop had answered the same
question in precisely the same words. Whatever Father Gervaise might
have said, the Bishop and the Knight were agreed!

Yet she wished, somewhat wistfully, that this most dear and loyal
Knight had taken her hands when she held them out.

She would have liked to feel the strong clasp of his upon them.

Possibly our Lady, who knoweth the heart of a woman, had guided the
Knight in this matter also.

CHAPTER XLI

WHAT THE BISHOP REMEMBERED

Symon, Bishop of Worcester, sat in his library, in the cool of the day.

He was weary, with a weariness which surpassed all his previous
experie