Ye have yet for this day's
journey certain hours of such daylight as the mountain pass
will give you, which at the best is little better than twilight;
therefore redeem ye the time."
But Ralph got off his horse, and Ursula did in likewise, and they both
kissed and embraced the old man, for their hearts were full and fain.
But he drew himself away from them, and turned about with no
word more, and went his ways, and presently was hidden from their
eyes by the rocky maze which lay about the mountain's foot.
Then the twain mounted their horses again and set forth silently
on the road, as they had been bidden.
In a little while the rocks of the pass closed about them,
leaving but a way so narrow that they could see a glimmer of
the stars above them as they rode the twilight; no sight they had
of the measureless stony desert, yet in their hearts they saw it.
They seemed to be wending a straight-walled prison without an end,
so that they were glad when the dark night came on them.
Ralph found some shelter in the cleft of a rock above a mound
where was little grass for the horses. He drew Ursula
into it, and they sat down there on the stones together.
So long they sat silent that a great gloom settled upon Ralph,
and he scarce knew whether he were asleep or waking, alive or dead.
But amidst of it fell a sweet voice on his ears, and familiar words
asking him of what like were the fields of Upmeads, and the flowers;
and of the fish of its water, and of the fashion of the building of his
father's house; and of his brethren, and the mother that bore him.
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