Chapter 15 - Page 2

we do hear."

"Sir Knight," said the youth, "it is the custom of this Halidome, or
patrimony of St. Mary's, to trouble with inquiries no guests who
receive our hospitality, providing they tarry in our house only for a
single revolution of the sun. We know that both criminals and debtors
come hither for sanctuary, and we scorn to extort from the pilgrim,
whom chance may make our guest, an avowal of the cause of his
pilgrimage and penance. But when one so high above our rank as
yourself, Sir Knight, and especially one to whom the possession of
such pre-eminence is not indifferent, shows his determination to be
our guest for a longer time, it is our usage to inquire of him whence
he comes, and what is the cause of his journey?"

The English knight gaped twice or thrice before he answered, and then
replied in a bantering tone, "Truly, good villagio, your question hath
in it somewhat of embarrassment, for you ask me of things concerning
which I am not as yet altogether determined what answer I may find it
convenient to make. Let it suffice thee, kind juvenal, that thou hast
the Lord Abbot's authority for treating me to the best of that power
of thine, which, indeed, may not always so well suffice for my
accommodation as either of us would desire."

"I must have a more precise answer than this, Sir Knight," said the
young Glendinning.

"Friend," said the knight, "be not outrageous. It may suit your
northern manners thus to press harshly upon the secrets of thy
betters; but believe me, that even as the lute, struck by an unskilful
hand, doth produce discords, so----" At this moment the door of the
apartment opened, and Mary Avenel presented herself--"But who can talk
of discords," said the knight, assuming his complimentary vein and
humour, "when the soul of harmony descends upon us in the presence of
surpassing beauty! For even as foxes, wolves, and other animals void
of sense and reason, do fly from the presence of the resplendent sun
of heaven when he arises in his glory, so do strife, wrath, and all
ireful passions retreat, and, as it were, scud away, from the face
which now beams upon us, with power to compose our angry passions,
illuminate our errors and difficulties, soothe our wounded minds, and
lull to rest our disorderly apprehensions; for as the heat and warmth
of the eye of day is to the material and physical world, so is the eye
which I now bow down before to that of the intellectual microcosm."

He concluded with a profound bow; and Mary Avenel, gazing from one to
the other, and plainly seeing that something was amiss, could only
say, "For heaven's sake, what is the meaning of this?"