Then Gawain bethought him, and it came into his heart that this were a
jewel for the jeopardy that awaited him when he came to the Green Chapel
to seek the return blow—could he so order it that he should escape
unslain, ’twere a craft worth trying. Then he bare with her chiding, and
let her say her say, and she pressed the girdle on him and prayed him to
take it, and he granted her prayer, and she gave it him with good will,
and besought him for her sake never to reveal it but to hide it loyally
from her lord; and the knight agreed that never should any man know it,
save they two alone. He thanked her often and heartily, and she kissed
him for the third time.
Then she took her leave of him, and when she was gone Sir Gawain arose,
and clad him in rich attire, and took the girdle, and knotted it round
him, and hid it beneath his robes. Then he took his way to the chapel,
and sought out a priest privily, and prayed him to teach him better how
his soul might be saved when he should go hence; and there he shrived
him, and showed his misdeeds, both great and small, and besought mercy
and craved absolution; and the priest assoiled him, and set him as clean
as if Doomsday had been on the morrow. And afterwards Sir Gawain made
him merry with the ladies, with carols, and all kinds of joy, as never
he did but that one day, even to nightfall; and all the men marvelled at
him, and said that never since he came thither had he been so merry.