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are.”
    “They’ll
try to reopen one of the roads and bring in supplies, before they abandon
Winchester altogether,” said Humilis, frowning thoughtfully over the
possibilities. “If and when they do break, they’ll break for Oxford first.
Well, if this stalemate has sent you here to me, one good thing has come out of
it. And what is this business that brought you to Shrewsbury?”
    “My
lord,” began Nicholas, leaning forward very earnestly, “you remember how you
sent me here to the manor of Lai, three years ago, to take the word to Humphrey
Cruce and his daughter that you could not keep your compact to marry her? — that
you were entering the cloister at Hyde Mead?”
    “It
is not a thing to forget,” agreed Humilis drily.
    “My
lord, neither can I forget the girl! You never saw her but as a child five
years old, before you went to the Crusade. But I saw her a grown lady, nearly
nineteen. I did your message to her father and to her, and came away glad to
have it delivered and done. But now I cannot get her out of my mind. Such grace
she had, and bore the severance with such dignity and courtesy. My lord, if she
is still not wed or betrothed, I want to speak for her myself. But I could not
go without first asking your blessing and consent.”
    “Son,”
said Humilis, glowing with astonished pleasure,”there’s nothing could delight
me more than to see her happy with you, since I had to fail her. The girl is
free to marry whom she will, and I could wish her no better man than you. And
if you succeed I shall be relieved of all my guilt towards her, for I shall
know she has made a better bargain than ever I should have been to her. Only consider,
boy, we who enter the cloister abjure all possessions, how then can we dare lay
claim to rights of possession in another creature of God? Go, and may you get
her, and my blessing on you both. But come back and tell me how you fare.”
    “My
lord, with all my heart! How can I fail, if you send me to her?”
    He
stooped to kiss the hand that held him warmly, and rose blithely from the stool
to take his leave. The silent figure in the shadows returned to his
consciousness belatedly; it was as if he had been alone with his lord all this
time, yet here stood the mute witness. Nicholas turned to him with impulsive
warmth.
    “Brother,
I do thank you for your care of my lord. For this time, farewell. I shall
surely see you again on my return.”
    It
was disconcerting to receive by way of reply only silence, and the courteous
inclination of the cowled head.
    “Brother
Fidelis,” said Humilis gently, “is dumb. Only his life and works speak for him.
But I dare swear his goodwill goes with you on this quest, like mine.”
    There
was silence in the cell when the last crisp, light echo had died away on the
day stairs. Brother Humilis lay still, thinking, it seemed, tranquil and
contented thoughts, for he was smiling.
    “There
are parts of myself I have never given to you,” he said at last,”things that
happened before ever I knew you. There is nothing of myself I would not wish to
share with you. Poor girl! What had she to hope for from me, so much her elder,
even before I was broken? And I never saw her but once, a little lass with
brown hair and a solemn round face. I never felt the want of a wife or children
until I was thirty years old, having an elder brother to carry on my father’s
line after the old man died. I took the Cross, and was fitting out a company to
go with me to the east, free as air, when my brother also died, and I was left
to balance my vow to God and my duty to my house. I owed it to God to do as I
had sworn, and go for ten years to the Holy Land, but also I owed it to my
house to marry and breed sons. So I looked for a sturdy, suitable little girl
who could well wait all those years for me, and still have all her
child-bearing time in its fullness when I returned. Barely six years old she
was —