There he abode a little, wondering at all these things and all that had
befallen him since he had left Upmeads.
Anon the two others came to him, and Ursula was clad in
the same-like raiment and the elder had the book in his hand.
He smiled on Ralph and nodded friendly to him. As to Ursula,
she flushed as red as a rose when she set eyes on him, for she
said to herself that he was as one of the angels which she
had seen painted in the choir of St. Mary's at Higham.
CHAPTER 6
Those Two Are Learned Lore by the Sage of Swevenham
Now the Sage led them through the wood till they came to a grassy
lawn amidst of which was a table of stone, which it seemed
to Ralph must be like to that whereon the witch-wife had offered
up the goat to her devils as the Lady of Abundance had told him;
and he changed countenance as the thought came into his mind.
But the Sage looked on him and shook his head and spake softly:
"In these wastes and wilds are many such-like places, where of old
time the ancient folks did worship to the Gods of the Earth
as they imagined them: and whereas the lore in this book cometh
of such folk, this is no ill place for the reading thereof.
But if ye fear the book and its writers, who are dead long ago,
there is yet time to go back and seek the Well without
my helping; and I say not but that ye may find it even thus.
But if ye fear not, then sit ye down on the grass, and I
will lay the book on this most ancient table, and read in it,
and do ye hearken heedfully.
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