THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
"where should I have been now, if I had warrayed for the love of glory?" and then he shook his head and looked wise and winked at Gilbert Tapp. But Eva paid little or no heed to Rupert or his talk, and tho' she would speak to him kindly enough it was plain that she had quite forgotten the sweet susurrations of the garden of Estrighoil, or if she remembered them it was with no particular desire to renew an ancient amity. And Rupert on his side was either with the sprouting chivalry, or hunting in Wentwood Chase, or talking to the old knight, to whom he did great reverence, as to a right worshipful and valiant warrior (and indeed Sir Roger had been all this in his day) and listened to his tales of fights, sieges, and stormings of strong places. And in appearance Rupert de Launay was as proper and personable a man as the chivalry of Christendom could show, standing six feet high, and well proportioned in his limbs, and being somewhat thin of face, though very handsome with a clear olive skin and deep blue eyes. And when he wore the surcoat given to him by the Emperor, which had his bearings exquisitely worked thereon—or, three ravens sable party per pale a palise gules and or—he looked a very fine specimen of a knight and seemed to have stepped out of the great book of romances from which he was used to read aloud on wet days and at candle-time. Hence you will not wonder that the girls grew soft hearted over this fine gentleman, for they love strength, valour, and gallant manhood and also high-flown romantic fantasy; so that when these qualities cohere
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