"Certes," saith Messire Gawain, "It was sore mischance for me that I
should see him yesterday before the castle where the knights pass by,
and speak to him and ask him his name, but he besought me that I should
not ask him his name until such time as he should ask me mine; and with
that he departed from me and entered into the forest, and I came
hitherward. Now am I so sorrowful that I know not what I may do for
the best, for King Arthur sendeth me in quest of him, and Lancelot hath
also gone to seek him in another part of the kingdom of Logres. But
now hath too great mischance befallen me of this quest, for twice have
I seen him and found him and spoken to him, and now have I lost him
again."
"Sir," saith the hermit, "He is so close and wary a knight, that he is
fain never to waste a word, neither will he make false semblant to any
nor speak word that he would not should be heard, nor do shame of his
body to his knowledge, nor carnal sin, for virgin and chaste is he and
doth never outrage to any."
"I know well," saith Messire Gawain, "that all the valours and all the
cleannesses that ought to be in a knight are in him, and therefore am I
the more sorrowful that I am not of them that he knoweth, for a man is
worth the more that hath acquaintance with a good knight."