“It is as you hear, Father,” said Miss Elaine, keeping her eyes away.
“And why do you think that such a peril upon your part would do away with this Dragon?”
“Says not the legend so?” she replied.
“And what may the legend be, my daughter?”
With some surprise that so well informed a person as Father Anselm should be ignorant of this prominent topic of the day, Sir Godfrey here broke in and narrated the legend to him with many vigourous comments.
“Ah, yes,” said the Father, smiling gently when the story was done; “I do now remember that some such child’s tale was in the mouths of the common folk once; but methought the nonsense was dead long since.”
“The nonsense, Father!” exclaimed Elaine.
“Of a surety, my child. Dost suppose that Holy Church were so unjust as to visit the sins of thy knightly relatives upon the head of any weak woman, who is not in the order of creation designed for personal conflict with men, let alone dragons?”
“Bravo, Dragon!” thought Hubert, as he listened to this wily talk of his chief.
But the words “weak woman” had touched the pride of Miss Elaine. “I know nothing of weak women,” she said, very stately; “but I do know that I am strong enough to meet this Dragon, and, moreover, firmly intend to do so this very night.”