“Try the Joyful Mountain. Whence do you come?”
From Minchester, it seemed. To Saint Leofric and Silver Cross. “And we’ve just heard news about a fearful witch and that she’ll be burned to-morrow. We shall see that first. Thank ye, and our blessing, master!”
Thomas Bettany gave to his family the supper hour and showed himself during it affectionate son and brother. “Eh, Thomas!” thought the old merchant, and like the pilgrims he, too, gave him blessing, though an inner one.
Marian, his sister, who was a mouse for quietness, said suddenly, “Oh, I would that to-morrow were gone by! If I were Morgen Fay to-night—”
Master Eustace Bettany rated her. “Say naught like that even in jest!”
“I was not jesting.”
“Thou’rt so far from Morgen Fay that thou shalt not say, ‘If I were Morgen Fay—’”
“She is woman.”
“Witches have left womanhood. Be silent!”