"I will never have a lover, nor be a lover, until men know what love is," said Mellifont in her turn.
"And what is love, do you think?" Isoult asked her thrilling.
"Love! Love! It is service," said Belvisée.
"Service and giving," said Mellifont.
Isoult turned aside and kissed Mellifont's cheek.
They had reached the low ground, for they had been walking during this colloquy. Oaks stood all about them, with bracken shoulder high. Into this the three girls plunged, and held on till they were stopped by a shallow brook. The sisters waded in, so did Isoult when she had picked up her skirts and petticoats. After a little course up stream through water joyfully cool they reached a place where the brook made a bend round the roots of an enormous oak; turning this they opened on a pool broad and deep.
"We will robe you here," said Belvisée, meaning rather to unrobe her.
The great gnarly roots of the oak were as pillars to a chamber which ran far into the bank. Here the two girls undressed Isoult, and here they folded and laid by her red silk gown. She became a pearly copy of themselves in all but her hair. Her hair! They had never seen such hair. Measuring it they found it almost to her knees.
"You cannot go with it loose," said they. "We must knot it up again; but we will go first to the herd."
"Let us go now," added Mellifont on an impulse, and took Isoult by the hand.