"
So Ralph was appeased for that time.
Oft also they spake of the little lands whence they came, and on a time amidst
of such talk Ursula said: "But alas, friend, why do I speak of all this,
when now save for my brother, who loveth me but after a fashion, to wit
that I must in all wise do his bidding, lad as he is, I have no longer kith
nor kin there, save again as all the folk of one stead are somewhat akin.
I think, my dear, that I have no country, nor any house to welcome me."
Said Ralph: "All lands, any land that thou mayst come to,
shall welcome thee, and I shall look to it that so it shall be."
And in his heart he thought of the welcome of Upmeads,
and of Ursula sitting on the dais of the hall of the High-House.
So wore the days till Candlemass, when the frost broke and the snows began
to melt, and the waters came down from the mountains, so that the river
rose over its banks and its waters covered the plain parts of the valley,
and those two could go dryshod but a little way out of their cavern;
no further than the green mound or toft which lay at the mouth thereof:
but the waters were thronged with fowl, as mallard and teal and coots,
and of these they took what they would. Whiles also they waded
the shallows of the flood, and whiles poled a raft about it,
and so had pleasure of the waters as before they had had of the snow.
But when at last the very spring was come, and the grass began
to grow after the showers had washed the plain of the waterborne mud,
and the snowdrop had thrust up and blossomed, and the celandine had come,
and then when the blackthorn bloomed and the Lent-lilies hid the grass
betwixt the great chestnut-boles, when the sun shone betwixt the showers
and the west wind blew, and the throstles and blackbirds ceased not
their song betwixt dawn and dusk, then began Ralph to say to himself,
that even if the Well at the World's End were not, and all that the Sage
had told them was but a tale of Swevenham, yet were all better than
well if Ursula were but to him a woman beloved rather than a friend.
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