desist and make her a song. Moreover, she added, beauty was but a
fleeting thing, and she considered it of little importance; and then she
laughed again.

Adhelmar took up the lute that lay beside them and fingered it for a
moment, as though wondering of what he would rhyme. Afterward he sang for
her as they sat in the gardens.

Sang Adhelmar:

_"It is in vain I mirror forth the praise
In pondered virelais
Of her that is the lady of my love;
Far-sought and curious phrases fail to tell
The tender miracle
Of her white body and the grace thereof.

"Thus many and many an artful-artless strain
Is fashioned all in vain:
Sound proves unsound; and even her name, that is
To me more glorious than the glow of fire
Or dawn or love's desire
Or opals interlinked with turquoises,
Mocks utterance.

"So, lacking skill to praise
That perfect bodily beauty which is hers,
Even as those worshippers
Who bore rude offerings of honey and maize,
Their all, into the gold-paved ministers