in vain search after so witching a vision! Was it not so, Ivor?" "I marvel that in such bright moonlight I failed to see you," said the chaplain. "It is true I was much wrapped in thought, and looked for no one, being all unaware of your intent to follow me in my quest; yet, since you saw _me_----" "'Tis not to be wondered at," said Lady Rosamond. "It was my wish to watch unobserved the effect of the sight upon you, knowing you to be an unblushing unbeliever in my mysterious tale, and moreover, fearing lest in the presence of so unrestrained a tongue as mine the Fates should not be propitious. It was easy enough to conceal ourselves, I do assure you. An we had been so much engrossed by the apparition as you were, forsooth, 'tis likely enough we had likewise failed to distinguish aught else! Now confess 'twas no wild-goose chase on which I sent you? You misjudged me sorely, and went forth, as I well know, but as Isaac of old, to meditate in the fields at eventide, thinking scorn of me and my old wives' fables; but what say you now? Spoke I not truly? See, Ivor, how the tell-tale blood rises to his cheek! He is not even yet disenchanted. Ah, good Master Vere, you have ever scorned the maidens within your reach;--now I shall indeed laugh to see you sigh and grow pale for love of the unattainable!" "Fie, Rosamond," said Ivor; "methinks our friend will scarce approve such light jesting. You wrong him likewise, for Sir Galahad is to my thinking too chivalrous a knight to 'think scorn' of a woman." "He will ne'er find one in this mortal world to his liking, nevertheless," answered Lady Rosamond. "He expects more virtues than the best of us can realise. Now confess, Sir Galahad, after your night's experience, that there must needs be, as our good Master Shakespeare hath it, 'more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy?'" "My philosophy hath verily acknowledged limits," answered the chaplain with a smile, "but I have not yet come to a decision as to whether such visions belong to either earth or heaven, or perchance may not appertain to quite another region." Lady Rosamond clapped her hands, and laughed as though some secret delight were too much for her. "A gallant speech truly!" she said. "I blush for you, Percival Vere, that you can harbour in your bosom such thoughts of one so fair. Go to! Thou art a hopeless youth, and I have done with you! You were ever proud as Lucifer, and you are loth to confess that you were in the wrong and I in the right with respect to our ancient legend, in which, as an Ap Gryffyth, you are bound to believe with all your heart." "My heart beareth witness to many things," said the chaplain with a smile; "and amid its timely counsels I find a warning against too ready a credence of the Lady Rosamond's wiles, at such times as a more frolicsome mood than ordinary doth overtake her! Wherefore the matter of my midnight