" And she touched his cheek with
her other hand; and he sighed and knit his brows somewhat, and said:
"But who is this man that he should slay me? And why is he thy tyrant,
that thou must flee from him?"
She laughed and said: "Fair creature, he is my husband."
Then Ralph flushed red, and his visage clouded, and he
opened his mouth to speak; but she stayed him and said:
"Yet is he not so much my husband but that or ever we were bedded
he must needs curse me and drive me away from his house."
And she smiled, but her face reddened so deeply that her grey
eyes looked strange and light therein.
But Ralph leapt up, and half drew his sword, and cried out loud:
"Would God I had slain him! Wherefore could I not slay him?"
And he strode up and down the sward before her in his wrath.
But she leaned forward to him and laughed and said:
"Yet, O Champion, we will not go back to him,
for he is stronger than thou, and hath vanquished thee.
This is a desert place, but thou art loud, and maybe over loud.
Come rest by me."
So he came and sat down by her, and took her hand again
and kissed the wrist thereof and fondled it and said:
"Yea, but he desireth thee sorely; that was easy to see.
It was my ill-luck that I slew him not."
She stroked his face again and said: "Long were the tale if I told
thee all. After he had driven me out, and I had fled from him,
he fell in with me again divers times, as was like to be;
for his brother is the Captain of the Dry Tree; the tall man
whom thou hast seen with me: and every time this baron hath
come on me he has prayed my love, as one who would die despaired
if I granted it not, but O my love with the bright sword"
(and she kissed his cheek therewith, and fondled his hand with
both her hands), "each time I said him nay, I said him nay.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196