Once loosed she never drew back. Brother and sister they were to be.
She made him hand her in to supper; he must sit at her right hand; her
own cup-bearer should fill his wine-cup, her own Sewer taste all his
meats. At the end of supper she sent for a great cup filled with wine;
it needed both her hands. She held it up before she drank to him,
saying, "Let there be love and amity between me and thee." The terms
of this aspiration astonished him; he accepted honours easily, for he
was used to observances at Starning; but to be thee'd and thou'd by
this lady! As he stood there laughing and blushing like a boy she made
him drink from the cup to the same wish and in the same terms. When
once your frozen soul opens to the thaw all the sluices are away,
truly. Prosper went to bed that night very well content with his
reception. He saw his schemes ripening fast on such a sunny wall as
this. His head was rather full, and of more than the fumes of wine;
consequently in saying his prayers he did not remember Isoult at all.
Yet hers had been sped out of Gracedieu Minster long before, and to
the same gods. Only she had had Saint Isidore in addition; and she had
had Prosper. Hers probably went nearer the mark. Until you have made a
beloved of your saint or a saint of your beloved--it matters not
greatly which--you will get little comfort out of your prayers.
It was, however, heedlessness rather than design which brought it
about, that as the days at High March succeeded each other Prosper did
not tell the Countess either of his adventure or of his summary method
of achieving it. Design was there: he did not see his way to involving
the Abbot, who was, he knew, a dependant of his hostess, and yet could
not begin the story elsewhere than at the beginning. Something, too,
kept the misfortunes of his wife from his tongue--an honourable
something, not his own pride of race. But he, in fact, forgot her. The
days were very pleasant. He hunted the hare, the deer, the wolf, the
bear. He hunted what he liked best of all to hunt, the man; and he got
the honour which only comes from successful hunting in that sort-the
devout admiration of those he led. So soon as it was found out where
his tastes and capacities lay he had as much of this work as he chose.
High March was on the northern borders of the Countess's country; not
far off was the Markstake, stormy, debatable land, plashy with blood.
There were raids, there were hornings and burnings, lifting of cattle
and ravishment of women, to be prevented or paid for. Prosper saw
service. The High March men had never had a leader quite like him-so
young, so light and fierce, so merry in fight. Isoult might eat her
heart out with love; Prosper had the love of his riders, for by this
they were his to a man.