, and where she lived
from this time nobody knew. She was still seen on the roads and hills
now and again, and once as she passed through Bury on washing-day the
women by the river called to her, "Where do you live now, Proud
Rosalind, instead of in a castle?" And Rosalind glanced down at the
kneeling women and said in her clear voice, "I live in a castle nobler
than Bramber's, or even than Amberley's; I live in the mightiest castle
in Sussex, and Queen Maudlin herself could not build such another to
live in."

"Then you'll doubtless be making her a great entertainment there, Proud
Rosalind," scoffed the washers.

"I entertain none but the kings of the earth there," said Rosalind. And
she made to walk on.

"Why then," mocked they, "you'd best seek one out to hunt the white
hart in your name this autumn, and crown you queen over young Maudlin,
Proud Rosalind."

And Rosalind stopped and looked at them, longing to say, "The white
hart? What do you mean?" Yet for all her longing to know, she could not
bring herself to ask anything of them. But as though her thoughts had
taken voice of themselves, she heard the sharp questions uttered aloud,
"What white hart, chatterers? Of what hunt are you talking?" And there
in mid-stream stood Harding in his boat, keeping it steady with the
great pole of the oar.

"Why, Red Boatman," said they, "did you not know that the Queen of
Bramber was coming to make merry at Amberley?"

"Ay," said Harding.

"And that our proud lady Rosalind, having, it seems, found a grander
castle to live in, has given hers up to young Maudlin?"

Harding glanced to and from the scornful tawny girl and said, "Well?"

"Well, Red Boatman! On Midsummer Eve the Queen comes with her court,
and on Midsummer Day there will be a great tourney to open the revels
that will last, so they say, all through summer. But the end of it all
is to be a great chase, for a white hart of twelve points has been seen
on the hills, and the Queen will hunt it in autumn till some lucky lord
kneels at her feet with its antlers; and him, they say, she'll marry."

Then Harding once more looked at Rosalind over the water, and she flung
back a look at him, and each was surprised to see dismay on the other's
brow. And Harding thought, "Is she angry because SHE is not the Queen
of the chase?" And Rosalind, "Would HE be the lord who kneels to Queen
Maudlin?" But neither knew that the trouble in each was really because
their precious se