after the sundering: therefore she was minded that thou shouldest
find the damsel, who as I deem loveth thee, and that thou
shouldest love her truly."

"O nay, nay!" said Ralph, "all this guess of thine is naught, saying that she
was kind indeed. Even as heaven is kind to them who have died martyrs,
and enter into its bliss after many torments."

And therewith he fell a-weeping at the very thought of her great kindness:
for indeed to this young man she had seemed great, and exalted far above him.

Richard looked at him a while; and then said: "Now, I pray
thee be not wroth with me for the word I have spoken.
But something more shall I say, which shall like thee better.
To wit, when I came back from Swevenham on Wednesday I deemed
it most like that the Well at the World's End was a tale,
a coloured cloud only; or that at most if it were indeed
on the earth, that thou shouldest never find it.
But now is my mind changed by the hearing of thy tale,
and I deem both that the Well verily is, and that thou thyself
shalt find it; and that the wise Lady knew this, and set
the greater store by thy youth and goodliness, as a richer
and more glorious gift than it had been, were it as fleeting
as such things mostly be. Now of this matter will I say no more;
but I think that the words that I have said, and which now seem
so vain to thee, shall come into thy mind on some later day,
and avail thee somewhat; and that is why I have spoken them.
But this again is another word, that I have got a right
good horse for thee, and other gear, such as thou mayest
need for the road, and that Clement's fellowship will meet