Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/254

 strove to divert her thoughts by little courtesies and speeches of kindness, till she regained her benign and cheerful countenance. Walter, too, let slip no occasion of redeeming all his sternness and deeds of cruelty, by pleasant looks and cherishings; and as she was so sweet a creature to behold in her hours of adversity and trial, you may suppose how fair a sight was her face of content and happiness.

After a time the ladies in attendance conducted her to her former chamber, where they stripped off (and for ever) the peasant's garb, and having arrayed her in a robe of cloth-of-gold, and set upon her head a jewelled crown, she returned to the hall amid the honours and congratulations of the assembly. Such was the joyous termination of this painful day: and the revelry was kept up till the stars shone at their brightest; and the feast was more costly and magnificent than that given upon their marriage.

And so these two lived many years in prosperity and unbroken concord. The daughter was married to a Lord, of the greatest worth