Did they deal with thee shamefully?" She answered him quietly:
"Nay," she said, "fear not! no shame befell me, save that I was a thrall and not free to depart. Forsooth," she said, smiling, "I fled away timely before the tormentors should be ready.
Forsooth it is an evil house and a mere piece of hell.
But now we are out of it and free in the wildwood, so let us forget it; for indeed it is a grief to remember it. And now once more let us mend the fire, for thy face is growing dim to me, and that misliketh me.
Afterwards before we lie down to sleep we will talk a little of the way, whitherward we shall turn our faces to-morrow."
So they cast on more wood, and pineapples, and sweet it was to Ralph to see her face come clear again from out the mirk of the wood.
Then they sat down again together and she said: "We two are seeking the Well at the World's End; now which of us knows more of the way? who is to lead, and who to follow?" Said Ralph:
"If thou know no more than I, it is little that thou knowest.
Sooth it is that for many days past I have sought thee that thou mightest lead me."
She laughed sweetly, and said: "Yea, knight, and was it for that cause that thou soughtest me, and not for my deliverance?"
He said soberly: "Yet in very deed I set myself to deliver thee."
"Yea," she said, "then since I am delivered, I must needs deem of it as if it were through thy deed. And as I suppose thou lookest for a reward therefor, so thy reward shall be, that I will lead thee to the Well at the World's End. Is it enough?"
"Nay," said Ralph. They held their peace a minute, then she said:
"Maybe when we have drunk of that Water and are coming back, it will be for thee to lead. For true it is that I shall scarce know whither to wend; since amidst of my dreaming of the Well, and of...other matters, my home that was is gone like a dream."
He looked at her, but scarce as if he were heeding all her words.
Then he spoke: "Yea, thou shalt lead me. I have been led by one or another ever since I have left Upmeads."
Now she looked on him somewhat ruefully, and said:
"Thou wert not hearkening e'en now; so I say it again, that the time shall come when thou shalt lead me."
In Ralph's mind had sprung up again that journey from the Water of the Oak-tree; so he strove with himself to put the thought from him, and sighed and said: "Dost thou verily know much of the way?"
She nodded yeasay. "Knowest thou of the Rock of the Fighting Man?"
"Yea," she said. "And of the Sage that dwelleth in this same wood?"
"Most surely," she said, "and to-morrow evening or the morrow after we shall find him; for I have been taught the way to his dwelling; and I wot that he is now called the Sage of Swevenham. Yet I must tell thee that there is some peril in seeking to him; whereas his dwelling is known of the Utterbol riders, who may follow us thither.
And yet again I deem that he will find some remedy thereto."
Said Ralph: "Whence didst thou learn all this, my friend?"
And his face grew troubled again; but she said simply:
"She taught it to me who spake to me in the wood by Hampton under Scaur."
She made as if she noted not the trouble in his face, but said:
"Put thy trust in this, that here and with me thou art even now nigher to the Well at the World's End than any other creature on the earth. Yea, even if the Sage of Swevenham be dead or gone hence, yet have I tokens to find the Rock of the Fighting Man, and the way through the mountains, though I say not but that he may make it all clearer.
But now I see thee drooping with the grief of days bygone; and I deem also that thou art weary with the toil of the way.
So I rede thee lie down here in the wilderness and sleep, and forget grief till to-morrow is a new day."
"Would it were come," said he, "that I might see thy face the clearer; yet I am indeed weary."
So he went and fetched his saddle and lay down with his head thereon; and was presently asleep. But she, who had again cast wood on the fire, sat by his head watching him with a drawn sword beside her, till the dawn of the woodland began to glimmer through the trees: then she also laid herself down and slept.
