“Only a night; you would have had the truth at dawn.”

“I struggled for your soul and for mine, as I thought.”

“Yes, yes, you chose the nobler part, thinking me a mere woman, a frail thing blown about by my own passion. I loved you, Pelleas, for the deed, though it nigh brought me to my death.”

“God knows I honoured you, Igraine.”

“Too well; it had been better for us both if you had been more human.”

There was an anguish of regret in her voice, a plaintive accusation that made Pelleas wince to the core. He bent down and kissed her hand as it lay in her lap, then looked into her face with a mute appeal that brought her to the verge of tears.

“Courage, courage, dear heart.”

“God bless you, Igraine.”

“I am very glad of your love.”