dreed. Abide!"

Therewith she went up the stairs, and Goldilind, who now was
but weak with her prison and the sudden light, and the hope
and fear of her purpose of bewailing her story, sat her down
on the stair there, almost, as it were, 'twixt home and
hell, till her heart came back to her and the tears began to
flow from her eyes. Forthright came back Aloyse, bearing a
white loaf and a little pitcher of milk on a silver
serving-dish; she laid them down, unlocked the door into the
garden, and thrust Goldilind through by the shoulders; then
she turned and took up her serving-dish with the bread and
milk, and handed it to Goldilind through the door, and said:
"Now is my Lady served. It were indeed well that my Lady
should strengthen herself this hour for the hour next to
come."

Therewith she turned about, and shut and locked the door;
and the King's daughter fell to eagerly on her bread, and
thought of little till she had eaten and drunk, save that
she felt the sweet scent of the gilliflowers and eglantine
as it were a part of her meal.

Then she went slowly down the garden, treading the
greensward beside the flowers; and she looked on the hold,
and the low sun gilded the walls thereof and glittered in a
window here and there, and though there was on her a
foreboding of the hours of that day, she did what she might
to make the best of the fragrant May morning and the song of
birds and rustle of leaves, though, indeed, at whiles the