Yet I will do thy bidding herein." She thanked him, and he went
to his bed and slept; for now that he had made up his mind to go,
he was somewhat more at rest.
CHAPTER 22
An Adventure in the Wood
Ralph arrayed himself for departure next morning without more words;
and when he was ready the carline said to him: "When thou wentest
forth before, I was troubled at thy going and feared for thy returning:
but now I fear not; for I know that thou wilt return; though it may be
leading a fair woman by the hand. So go, and all luck go with thee."
Ralph smiled at her words and went his ways, and came into the wood
that lay due south from the Castle, and he went on and on and had
no thought of turning back. He rested twice and still went on,
till the fashion of the thickets and the woods changed about him;
and at last when the sun was getting low, he saw light gleaming
through a great wood of pines, which had long been dark before him
against the tall boles, and soon he came to the very edge of the wood,
and going heedfully, saw between the great stems of the outermost trees,
a green strand, and beyond it a long smooth water, a little lake between
green banks on either side. He came out of the pinewood on to the grass;
but there were thornbushes a few about, so that moving warily
from one to the other, he might perchance see without being seen.
Warily he went forsooth, going along the green strand to the east
and the head of that water, and saw how the bank sloped up gently from
its ending toward the pine-wood, in front of whose close-set trees stood
three great-boled tall oak-trees on a smooth piece of green sward.
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