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 dwell in the Wood beyond the World, and nowhere else. What hath put this word into thy mouth?

He said: Pardon me, Lady, if I have misdone; but thus it was: Mine own eyes beheld thee going down the quays of our city, and thence a ship-board, and the ship sailed out of the haven. And first of all went a strange dwarf, whom I have seen here, and then thy Maid; and then went thy gracious and lovely body.

The Lady’s face changed as he spoke, and she turned red and then pale, and set her teeth; but she refrained her, and said: Squire, I see of thee that thou art no liar, nor light of wit, therefore I suppose that thou hast verily seen some appearance of me; but never have I been in Langton, nor thought thereof, nor known that such a stead there was until thou namedst it e’en now. Wherefore, I deem that an enemy hath cast the shadow of me on the air of that land.

Yea, my Lady, said Walter; and what enemy mightest thou have to have done this?

She was slow of answer, but spake at last from a quivering mouth of anger: Knowest thou not the saw, that a man’s foes are they

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