which he will heed, if he heedeth aught my good-will or enmity.
I beseech thee come for it in three days wearing."

Therewith she arose and took his hand and led him to the door,
and he departed, blessing her goodness, and wondering at her
courtesy and gentle speech.

For those three days he was still seeking tidings everywhere,
till folk began to know of him far and wide, and to talk of him.
And at the time appointed he went to the Queen's House and was
brought to her chamber as before, and she was alone therein.
She greeted him and smiled on him exceeding kindly, but he might
not fail to note of her that she looked sad and her face
was worn by sorrow. She bade him sit beside her, and said:
"Hast thou any tidings of the woman whom thou seekest?"
"Nay, nay," said he, "and now I am minded to carry on the search
out-a-gates. I have some good friends who will go with me awhile.
But thou, Lady, hast thou heard aught?"

"Naught of the damsel," she said. "But there is something else.
As Clement told me, thou seekest the Well at the World's End,
and through Utterness and by Utterbol is a way whereby folk seek thither.
Mayst thou find it, and may it profit thee more than it did my
kinsman of old, who first raised up Goldburg in the wilderness.
Whereas for him was naught but strife and confusion, till he was
slain in a quarrel, wherein to fail was to fail, and to win the day
was to win shame and misery."

She looked on him sweetly and said: "Thou art nowise such as he;
and if thou drink of the Well, thou wilt go back to Upmeads,