"
Said Ralph: "Yea? now tell me all thy thought."
Said Richard: "My thought is that this lady who was slain,
was scarce wholly of the race of Adam; but that at the least
there was some blending in her of the blood of the fays.
Or how deemest thou?"
"I wot not," said Ralph sadly; "to me she seemed but a woman,
though she were fairer and wiser than other women." Said Richard:
"Well, furthermore, if I heard thee aright, there is another woman
in the tale who is also fairer and wiser than other women?"
"I would she were my sister!" said Ralph. "Yea," quoth Richard, "and dost
thou bear in mind what she was like? I mean the fashion of her body."
"Yea, verily," said Ralph.
Again said Richard: "Doth it seem to thee as if the Lady of the Dry
Tree had some inkling that thou shouldst happen upon this other woman:
whereas she showed her of the road to the Well at the World's End, and gave
her that pair of beads, and meant that thou also shouldest go thither?
And thou sayest that she praised her,--her beauty and wisdom.
In what wise did she praise her? how came the words forth from her?
was it sweetly?"
"Like honey and roses for sweetness," said Ralph.
"Yea," said Richard, "and she might have praised her in such
wise that the words had came forth like gall and vinegar.
Now I will tell thee of my thought, since we be at point
of sundering, though thou take it amiss and be wroth with me:
to wit, that thou wouldst have lost the love of this lady as time wore,
even had she not been slain: and she being, if no fay, yet wiser
than other women, and foreseeing, knew that so it would be.
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