The Talk of Two Women Concerning Ralph
But when dinner was done, came David and a man with him bringing
Ralph's war gear, and bade him do it on, while the folk were fencing
the lists, which they were doing with such stuff as they had at the
Tower; and the Lord had been calling for Otter that he might command
him what he should tell to the marshals of the lists and how all should
be duly ordered, wherefore he went up unto the Tower whither the Lord
had now gone. So Ralph did on his armour, which was not right meet for
tilting, being over light for such work; and his shield in especial was
but a target for a sergeant, which he had brought at Cheaping Knowe;
but he deemed that his deftness and much use should bear him well
through.
Now, the Lady had abided in her pavilion when her Lord went abroad;
anon after she sent all her women away, save one whom she loved, and to
whom she was wont to tell the innermost of her mind; though forsooth
she mishandled her at whiles; for she was hot of temper, and over-ready
with her hands when she was angry; though she was nowise cruel. But
the woman aforesaid, who was sly and sleek, and somewhat past her first
youth, took both her caresses and her buffets with patience, for the
sake of the gifts and largesse wherewith they were bought. So now she
stood by the board in the pavilion with her head drooping humbly, yet
smiling to herself and heedful of whatso might betide. But the Lady
walked up and down the pavilion hastily, as one much moved.
At last she spake as she walked and said: "Agatha, didst thou see him
when my Lord pointed him out?" "Yea," said the woman lifting her face
a little.
"And what seemed he to thee?" said the Lady. "O my Lady," quoth
Agatha, "what seemed he to thee?" The lady stood and turned and looked
at her; she was slender and dark and sleek; and though her lips moved
not, and her eyes did not change, a smile seemed to steal over her face
whether she would or not. The Lady stamped her foot and lifted her
hand and cried out. "What! dost thou deem thyself meet for him?" And
she caught her by the folds over her bosom. But Agatha looked up into
her face with a simple smile as of a child: "Dost thou deem him meet
for thee, my Lady--he a thrall, and thou so great?" The Lady took her
hand from her, but her face flamed with anger and she stamped on the
ground again: "What dost thou mean?" she said; "am I not great enough
to have what I want when it lieth close to my hand?" Agatha looked on
her sweetly, and said in a soft voice: "Stretch out thine hand for it
then." The Lady looked at her grimly, and said: "I understand thy
jeer; thou meanest that he will not be moved by me, he being so fair,
and I being but somewhat fair. Wilt thou have me beat thee? Nay, I
will send thee to the White Pillar when we come home to Utterbol."
The woman smiled again, and said: "My Lady, when thou hast sent me to
the White Pillar, or the Red, or the Black, my stripes will not mend
the matter for thee, or quench the fear of thine heart that by this
time, since he is a grown man, he loveth some other. Yet belike he
will obey thee if thou command, even to the lying in the same bed with
thee; for he is a thrall." The Lady hung her head, but Agatha went on
in her sweet clear voice: "The Lord will think little of it, and say
nothing of it unless thou anger him otherwise; or unless, indeed, he be
minded to pick a quarrel with thee, and hath baited a trap with this
stripling. But that is all unlike: thou knowest why, and how that he
loveth the little finger of that new-come thrall of his (whom ye left
at home at Utterbol in his despite), better than all thy body, for all
thy white skin and lovely limbs. Nay, now I think of it, I deem that
he meaneth this gift to make an occasion for the staying of any quarrel
with thee, that he may stop thy mouth from crying out at him--well,
what wilt thou do? he is a mighty Lord."
The Lady looked up (for she had hung her head at first), her face all
red with shame, yet smiling, though ruefully, and she said: "Well, thou
art determined that if thou art punished it shall not be for naught.
But thou knowest not my mind." "Yea, Lady," said Agatha, smiling in
despite of herself, "that may well be."
Now the Lady turned from her, and went and sat upon a stool that was
thereby, and said nothing a while; only covering her face with her
hands and rocking herself to and fro, while Agatha stood looking at
her. At last she said: "Hearken, Agatha, I must tell thee what lieth
in mine heart, though thou hast been unkind to me and hast tried to
hurt my soul. Now, thou art self-willed, and hot-blooded, and not
unlovely, so that thou mayst have loved and been loved ere now. But
thou art so wily and subtle that mayhappen thou wilt not understand
what I mean, when I say that love of this young man hath suddenly
entered into my heart, so that I long for him more this minute than I
did the last, and the next minute shall long still more. And I long
for him to love me, and not alone to pleasure me."
"Mayhappen it will so betide without any pushing the matter," said
Agatha.
"Nay," said the Lady, "Nay; my heart tells me that it will not be so;
for I have seen him, that he is of higher kind than we be; as if he
were a god come down to us, who if he might not cast his love upon a
goddess, would disdain to love an earthly woman, little-minded and in
whom perfection is not." Therewith the tears began to run from her
eyes; but Agatha looked on her with a subtle smile and said: "O my
Lady! and thou hast scarce seen him! And yet I will not say but that
I understand this. But as to the matter of a goddess, I know not.
Many would say that thou sitting on thine ivory chair in thy golden
raiment, with thy fair bosom and white arms and yellow hair, wert not
ill done for the image of a goddess; and this young man may well think
so of thee. However that may be, there is something else I will say to
thee; (and thou knowest that I speak the truth to thee--most often--
though I be wily). This is the word, that although thou hast time and
again treated me like the thrall I am, I deem thee no ill woman, but
rather something overgood for Utterbol and the dark lord thereof."
Now sat the Lady shaken with sobs, and weeping without stint; but she
looked up at that word and said: "Nay, nay, Agatha, it is not so.
To-day hath this man's eyes been a candle to me, that I may see myself
truly; and I know that though I am a queen and not uncomely, I am but
coarse and little-minded. I rage in my household when the whim takes
me, and I am hot-headed, and masterful, and slothful, and should belike
be untrue if there were any force to drive me thereto. And I suffer my
husband to go after other women, and this new thrall in especial, so
that I may take my pleasure unstayed with other men whom I love not
greatly. Yes, I am foolish, and empty-headed, and unclean. And all
this he will see through my queenly state, and my golden gown, and my
white skin withal."
Agatha looked on her curiously, but smiling no more. At last she said:
"What is to do, then? or must I think of something for thee?"
"I know not, I know not," said the Lady between her sobs; "yet if I
might be in such case that he might pity me; belike it might blind his
eyes to the ill part of me. Yea," she said, rising up and falling
walking to and fro swiftly, "if he might hurt me and wound me himself,
and I so loving him."
Said Agatha coldly: "Yes, Lady, I am not wily for naught; and I both
deem that I know what is in thine heart, and that it is good for
something; and moreover that I may help thee somewhat therein. So in a
few days thou shalt see whether I am worth something more than hard
words and beating. Only thou must promise in all wise to obey me,
though I be the thrall, and thou the Lady, and to leave all the whole
matter in my hands."
Quoth the Lady: "That is easy to promise; for what may I do by myself?"
Then Agatha fell pondering a while, and said thereafter: "First, thou
shalt get me speech with my Lord, and cause him to swear immunity to
me, whatsoever I shall say or do herein." Said the Lady: "Easy is
this. What more hast thou?"
Said Agatha: "It were better for thee not to go forth to see the
jousting; because thou art not to be trusted that thou show not thy
love openly when the youngling is in peril; and if thou put thy lord to
shame openly before the people, he must needs thwart thy will, and be
fierce and cruel, and then it will go hard with thy darling. So thou
shalt not go from the pavilion till the night is dark, and thou mayst
feign thyself sick meantime."
"Sick enough shall I be if I may not go forth to see how my love is
faring in his peril: this at least is hard to me; but so be it! At
least thou wilt come and tell me how he speedeth." "Oh yes," said
Agatha, "if thou must have it so; but fear thou not, he shall do well
enough."
Said the Lady: "Ah, but thou wottest how oft it goes with a chance
stroke, that the point pierceth where it should not; nay, where by
likelihood it could not."
"Nay," said Agatha, "what chance is there in this, when the youngling
knoweth the whole manner of the play, and his foemen know naught
thereof? It is as the chance betwixt Geoffrey the Minstrel and Black
Anselm, when they play at chess together, that Anselm must needs be
mated ere he hath time to think of his fourth move. I wot of these
matters, my Lady. Now, further, I would have thy leave to marshal thy
maids about the seat where thou shouldest be, and moreover there should
be someone in thy seat, even if I sat in it myself." Said the Lady:
"Yea, sit there if thou wilt."
"Woe's me!" said Agatha laughing, "why should I sit there? I am like
to thee, am I not?" "Yea," said the Lady, "as the swan is like to the
loon." "Yea, my Lady," said Agatha, "which is the swan and which the
loon? Well, well, fear not; I shall set Joyce in thy seat by my Lord's
leave; she is tall and fair, and forsooth somewhat like to thee." "Why
wilt thou do this?" quoth the Lady; "Why should thralls sit in my
seat?" Said Agatha: "O, the tale is long to tell; but I would confuse
that young man's memory of thee somewhat, if his eyes fell on thee at
all when ye met e'en now, which is to be doubted."
The Lady started up in sudden wrath, and cried out: "She had best not
be too like to me then, and strive to draw his eyes to her, or I will
have her marked for diversity betwixt us. Take heed, take heed!"
Agatha looked softly on her and said: "My Lady. Ye fair-skinned,
open-faced women should look to it not to show yourselves angry before
men-folk. For open wrath marreth your beauty sorely. Leave scowls and
fury to the dark-browed, who can use them without wrying their faces
like a three months' baby with the colic. Now that is my last rede as
now. For methinks I can hear the trumpets blowing for the arraying of
the tourney. Wherefore I must go to see to matters, while thou hast
but to be quiet. And to-night make much of my Lord, and bid him see me
to-morrow, and give heed to what I shall say to him. But if I meet him
without, now, as is most like, I shall bid him in to thee, that thou
mayst tell him of Joyce, and her sitting in thy seat. Otherwise I will
tell him as soon as he is set down in his place. Sooth to say, he is
little like to quarrel with either thee or me for setting a fair woman
other than thee by his side."
Therewith she lifted the tent lap and went out, stepping daintily, and
her slender body swaying like a willow branch, and came at once face to
face with the Lord of Utterbol, and bowed low and humbly before him,
though her face, unseen of him, smiled mockingly. The Lord looked on
her greedily, and let his hand and arm go over her shoulder, and about
her side, and he drew her to him, and kissed her, and said: "What,
Agatha! and why art thou not bringing forth thy mistress to us?" She
raised her face to him, and murmured softly, as one afraid, but with a
wheedling smile on her face and in her eyes: "Nay, my Lord, she will
abide within to-day, for she is ill at ease; if your grace goeth in,
she will tell thee what she will have."
"Agatha," quoth he, "I will hear her, and I will do her pleasure if
thou ask me so to do." Then Agatha cast down her eyes, and her speech
was so low and sweet that it was as the cooing of a dove, as she said:
"O my Lord, what is this word of thine?"
He kissed her again, and said: "Well, well, but dost thou ask it?" "O
yea, yea, my Lord," said she.
"It is done then," said the Lord; and he let her go; for he had been
stroking her arm and shoulder, and she hurried away, laughing inwardly,
to the Lady's women. But he went into the pavilion after he had cast
one look at her.