"
"So be it!" said Ralph.
Said Richard: "I am old now, but I have been young, and many
things have I seen and suffered, ere I came to Upmeads.
Old am I, and I cannot feel certain hopes and griefs as a young
man can; yet have I bought the knowledge of them dear enough,
and have not forgotten. Whereby I wot well that my drearihead
is concerning a woman. Is it not so?" "Yea," quoth Ralph.
Said Richard: "Now shalt thou tell me thereof, and so
lighten thine heart a little." "I will not tell thee,"
said Ralph; "or, rather, to speak more truly, I cannot."
"Yea," said Richard, "and though it were now an easier thing
for me to tell thee of the griefs of my life than for thee
to hearken to the tale, yet I believe thee. But mayhappen thou
mayst tell me of one thing that thou desirest more than another."
Said Ralph: "I desire to die." And the tears started in his
eyes therewith. But Richard spake, smiling on him kindly:
"That way is open for thee on any day of the week.
Why hast thou not taken it already?" But Ralph answered naught.
Richard said: "Is it not because thou hopest to desire something;
if not to-day, then to-morrow, or the next day or the next?"
Still Ralph spake no word; but he wept. Quoth Richard: "Maybe I
may help thee to a hope, though thou mayest think my words wild.
In the land and the thorp where I was born and bred there was talk
now and again of a thing to be sought, which should cure sorrow,
and make life blossom in the old, and uphold life in the young.
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