They often talked of Alys as they paced the alleys of the garden together during the few days that Leofric remained the guest of Hugh, recalling the past days of their student life in Oxford, and how strangely fortune had dealt with them, throwing them together, and into the company of the Constable's daughter.
Now Linda was the wife of a prosperous gentleman, who by the favour of the Prince had good prospects of rising to knighthood; and Leofric, from being a poor clerk, almost of the begging class, was a Master, a man of some substance, as riches went in those days, and could, as Linda once softly suggested, "mate with any maiden, even of a noble house, for his learning and the prospect held out to him of princely favour."
Then a red flush crept into Leofric's cheek, and he made answer,—
"There is only one maiden in all the world for me; and how can I dare to hope that she will have thought to spare for so humble a suppliant as myself?"
"Thou hadst better ask her what she thinks of the suppliant," said Linda softly. "Methinks a faint heart beseems not an earnest wooer."
Leofric gave her a searching look.
"Mistress Linda, what dost thou mean?" he questioned. She looked at him with a smile in her eyes.
"Thou hadst better ask Alys what I mean."