"
"Nay, nay!" said the woman, "but thou wilt not speak the truth."
"Yea, but I will," answered he.
"Then I ask thee again," she said, "what thinkest thou of me?"
And the knight replied, "Truly I think not of thee as of one of the
well-favoured among women."
"Dost thou then think," said she, and her voice was full of anger,
which yet it seemed as she would hide, "that I am not pleasant to
look upon? Verily no man hath yet said so unto me, though many have
turned away from me, because I spoke unto them the truth!"
"Now surely thou sayest the thing that is not so!" said the knight,
for he was grieved to think she should speak the truth but of
contention, and not of love to the same, inasmuch as she also did
seek that men should praise her.
"Truly I say that which is so," she answered.
Then was the knight angered, and spake to her roughly, and said
unto her, "Therefore, woman, will I tell thee that which thou
demandest of me: Verily I think of thee as one, to my thinking, the
worst favoured, and least to be desired among women whom I have yet
looked upon; nor do I desire ever to look upon thee again."
Then laughed she aloud, and said to him, "Nay, but did I not tell
thee thou didst not dare speak the thing to my face? for now thou
sayest it not to my face, but behind thine own back!"
And in wrath the knight turned him in his saddle, crying, "I tell
thee, to thy ill-shaped and worse-hued countenance, that--" and
there ceased, and spake not, but with open mouth sat silent.
Pages:
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361