penetration.' But, dear Great-Aunt,' I pleaded, it may be that the
day will come when I might not wish--'"

And here, dear maidens, Viola faltered. And William put his arm
about her a little tighter--because it was there already--and said,
"What might you not wish, beloved?" And she murmured, "To be
concealed past one man's penetration. And my Great-Aunt said I need
not worry. Because though men, she said, were fools, there was one
time in every man's life when he was quick enough to penetrate all
obscurities, whether it were a layer of soot or a night without a
moon." And she hid her face on the King's shoulder, and he tried to
kiss her but could not make her look up until he said, "Or even a
woman's waywardness?" Then she looked up of her own accord and
kissed him.

"In this way," she resumed, "it became my custom on each Saturday,
after closing the forge, to come here with my woman's raiment, and
wait in a hollow until night had fallen, and make myself clean of
the week's blackness. For I dared not do this by daylight, or be
seen going forth from my forge in my proper person."

"But why did you choose to bathe at midnight?" asked the King.

She was silent for a few moments, and then said hurriedly, "I did
not choose to bathe at midnight until a month ago.--For the rest,"
she resumed, "I was hard to please in the matter of the shoes
because I knew that when they were finished you would ride away. And
therefore the more you improved the crosser I became. And if I have
tormented you for a month it was because you tormented me by
refusing to speak when you saw me here, in spite of your hateful