SHE: Then I pray thee keep it for me lest I lose it by the way and so—let us begone.

Here Sir Pertinax started.

“Begone?” quoth he. “Begone—in truth? Thou and I in faith? Go whither?”

SHE: Any whither.

HE: Alone? Thou and I?

“Nay, not alone,” she sighed; “let us go together.”

Sir Pertinax dropped his fishing-rod and watched it idly float away down the stream:

“Together, maiden?” said he at last.

“Truly!” she sighed. “For thou art lonely even as I am lonely, and thou art, methinks, one a lonely maid may trust.”

“Ha—trust!” quoth he. “And wherefore would'st trust me, maiden?”