“It is death that hath sundered us,” said Ralph.
Then she hung her head, and sat silent a while, neither did he speak till she had risen up and cast more wood upon the fire; and she stood before it with her back towards him. Then he spake to her in a cheerful voice and said: “Belike we shall be long together: tell me thy name; is it not Dorothy?” She turned about to him with a smiling face, and said: “Nay lord, nay: did I not tell thee my name before? They that held me at the font bid the priest call me Ursula, after the Friend of Maidens. But what is thy name?”
“I am Ralph of Upmeads,” quoth he; and sat a while silent, pondering his dream and how it had betrayed him as to her name, when it had told him much that he yet deemed true.
She came and sat down by him again, and said to him: “Thy questions I have answered; but thou hast not yet told me the tale of thy captivity.” Her voice sounded exceeding sweet to him, and he looked on her face and spake as kindly as he knew how, and said: “A short tale it is tonight at least: I came from Whitwall with a Company of Chapmen, and it was thee I was seeking and the Well at the World’s End. All went well with me, till I came to Goldburg, and there I was betrayed by a felon, who had promised to lead me safe to Utterness, and tell me concerning the way unto the Well. But he sold me to the Lord of Utterbol, who would lead me to his house; which irked me not, at first, because I looked to find thee there. Thereafter, if for shame I may tell the tale, his lady and wife cast her love upon me, and I was entangled in the nets of guile: yet since I was told, and believed that it would be ill both for thee and for me if I met thee at Utterbol, I took occasion to flee away, I will tell thee how another while.”
She had turned pale as she heard him, and now she said: “It is indeed God’s mercy that thou camest not to Utterbol nor foundest me there, for then had both we been undone amidst the lusts of those two; or that thou camest not there to find me fled, else hadst thou been undone. My heart is sick to think of it, even as I sit by thy side.”
Said Ralph: “Thy last word maketh me afraid and ashamed to ask thee a thing. But tell me first, is that Lord of Utterbol as evil as men’s fear would make him? for no man is feared so much unless he is deemed evil.”
She was silent a while, and then she said: “He is so evil that it might be deemed that he has been brought up out of hell.”
Then Ralph looked sore troubled, and he said: “Dear friend, this is the thing hard for me to say. In what wise did they use thee at Utterbol? 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 tomorrow.”
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
