"
But Ralph said never a word. Then said the knight, and sighed withal:
"I now see this of thee, that thou mayst not depart; well, so let it be!"
and he sighed heavily again. Then Ralph strove with himself,
and said courteously: "Sir, I am sorry that I am a burden irksome
to thee; and that, why I know not, thou mayst not rid thyself of me
by the strong hand, and that otherwise thou mayst not be rid of me.
What then is this woman to thee, that thou wouldst have me slay her,
and yet art so fierce in thy love for her?" The Knight of the Sun
laughed wrathfully thereat, and was on the point of answering him,
when up came those two from the wounded man, and the Friar said:
"The knight shall do well; but well it is for him that the Lady
of Abundance was here for his helping; for from her hands
goeth all healing, as it was with the holy men of old time.
May the saints keep her from all harm; for meek and holy indeed she is,
as oft we have heard it."
The Lady put her hand on his shoulder, as if to bid him silence,
and then set herself down on the grass beside the Knight of the Sun,
and fell to talking sweetly and blithely to the three men.
The Friar answered her with many words, and told her of the deer
and fowl of the wood and the water that he was wont to see nigh to
his hermitage; for of such things she asked him, and at last he said:
"Good sooth, I should be shy to say in all places and before all men
of all my dealings with God's creatures which live about me there.
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