'You have much to tell me, and I have much to hear,' she said, after a pause. 'You should have come to the monastery to be cured of your wounds. Why were you so mistrustful of our friendship?'
He coloured and was silent.
'Indeed,' she said gravely, 'we can honour brave men in the Tauern and in Idrac too. You are very brave. I do not know how to thank you for my people or for myself.'
'Pray do not speak so,' he said, in a very low voice. 'To see you again would be recompense for much worthier things than any I have done.'
'But you might have seen me long ago,' she said, with a certain nervousness new to her, 'had you only chosen to come to the Isle. I asked you twice.'
He looked at her with eyes of longing and pathetic appeal.
'Do not tempt me,' he murmured. 'If I yielded, and if you despised me——'
'How could I despise one who has so nobly saved the lives of my people?'
'You would do so.'
He spoke very low: he was silent a little while, then he said very softly: