Page:Wood Beyond the World.djvu/178

 again in the pillared hall, wherein my thralldom was made manifest.

Maiden, said Walter, one question I would ask thee; to wit, didst thou see me on the quay by the ships?

Nay, she said, there were many folk about, but they were all as images of the aliens to me. Now hearken further: three months thereafter came the dream upon me again, when we were all three together in the Pillared Hall; and again was the vision somewhat dim. Once more we were in the street of a busy town, but all unlike to that other one, and there were men standing together on our right hands by the door of a house.

Yea, yea, quoth Walter; and, forsooth, one of them was who but I.

Refrain thee, beloved! she said; for my tale draweth to its ending, and I would have thee hearken heedfully: for maybe thou shalt once again deem my deed past pardon. Some twenty days after this last dream, I had some leisure from my Mistress’s service, so I went to disport me by the Well of the Oak-tree (or forsooth she might have set in my mind the thought of going there, that I might meet thee and give her some occasion against me); and I sat thereby, nowise 172