Ralph was merry and helpful and filled water from the runnel,
and wrought what he might to make the lodging meet; and as they ate
and rested he said to Ursula: "Last night it was thou that beguiled
me of my gloom, yet thereafter till we slept it was my voice for
the more part, and not thine, that was heard in the wilderness.
Now to-night it shall be otherwise, and I will but ask a question of thee,
and hearken to the sweetness of thy voice."
She laughed a little and very sweetly, and she said:
"Forsooth, dear friend, I spoke to thee that I might hear thy voice
for the more part, and not mine, that was heard in the desert;
but when I heard thee, I deemed that the world was yet alive
for us to come back to."
He was silent awhile, for his heart was pierced with the sweetness of
her speech, and he had fain have spoken back as sweetly as a man might;
yet he could not because he feared her somewhat, lest she should turn
cold to him; therefore himseemed that he spoke roughly, as he said:
"Nevertheless, my friend, I beseech thee to tell me of thine old home,
even as last night I told thee of mine."
"Yea," she said, "with a good will." And straightway
she fell to telling him of her ways when she was little,
and of her father and mother, and of her sister that had died,
and the brother whom Ralph had seen at Bourton Abbas:
she told also of bachelors who had wooed her, and jested
concerning them, yet kindly and without malice, and talked
so sweetly and plainly, that the wilderness was become a familiar
place to Ralph, and he took her hand in the dusk and said:
"But, my friend, how was it with the man for whom thou wert
weeping when I first fell in with thee at Bourton Abbas?"
She said: "I will tell thee plainly, as a friend may to a friend.
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