The Wood Beyond the World

a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall and strong; rather wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont; a valiant youth, and a kind; not of many w

of the land, a head-man of the greatest of the Lineages of Langton, and a captain of the Porte; he wa

nifest tokens, that his fairness was not so much to her but that she must seek to the foulness of one worser than he in all ways; wherefore his rest departed from him, whereas he hated her for her untruth and her hatred of him; yet would the sound of her voice, as she came and went in the house, make his heart beat; and the sight of

that the world was wide and he but a young man. So on a day as he sat with his father alone, he spake to him and said: “Father, I was on the quays eve

the Katherine, will they warp out of the haven

Walter, “and this it is, that I would de

er, son?” said

er, “for I am ill at ease at h

there was strong love between them; but at last he said: “Well, son,

ather, then shalt tho

u shalt have thine own way herein, she shall no longer abide in my house. Nay, but it were for the strife t

more than needs must be, lest, so doin

in for a while; then he said:

that thou go not away empty-handed; the skipper of the Katherine is a good man and true, and knows the seas well; and my servant Robert the Low, who is clerk of the lading, is trustworthy and wise, and as myself in all matters that look towards chaffer. The Katherine is

ut his business, and there was no more said betwi