"Where is your wedding-ring, my child?" he asked her, when he had
noticed that it was not where he had put it.
"Lord, it is here," said she, blushing again. She drew from her neck a
fine gold chain whereon were the ring and another trinket which beamed
like glass.
Is that where you would have it, Isoult?"
"Yes, lord," she answered. "For this present it must be there."
"As you will," said Prosper. "Let us break our fast and make ready,
for we must be on our journey before we see the sun." Isoult went into
the cottage as Brother Bonaccord came out with good-morning all over
his puckered face.
Isoult brought bread and goats'-milk cheese, and they broke their fast
sitting on the threshold, while the sun slowly rose behind the house
and lit up the ground before them--a broken moorland with heather-
clumps islanded in pools of black water. The white forest mist hid
every distance and the air was shrewdly cold; but Prosper and the
friar gossiped cheerfully as they munched.
"We friars," said Brother Bonaccord, "have been accused of a foible
for wedding-rings. I grant you I had rather marry a healthy couple
than leave them aching, and that the sooner there's a christening the
better I am pleased. Another soul for Christ to save; another point
against the devil, thinks I! I have heard priests say otherwise: they
will christen if they must, and marry if it is not too late; but they
would sooner bury you any day. Go to! They live in the world (which I
vow is an excellent place), and eat and drink of it; yet they shut
their eyes, pretending all the time that they are not there, but
rather in skyey mansions. If this is not a fit and proper place for us
men, why did God Almighty take six days a-thinking before He bid it
out of the cooking pot? For a gift to the devil? Not He! 'Stop
bubbling, you rogue,' says He; 'out of the pot with you and on to the
platter, that these gentlemen and ladies of mine may cease sucking
their fingers and dip in the dish!' Pooh! Look at your mother Mary and
your little brother Gesulino. There was a wedding for you, there was a
sacring! Beloved sons are ye all, young men; full of grace are ye,
young women! God be good, who told me to couple ye and keep the game
a-going! Take my blessing, brother, and the sleek and tidy maid you
have gotten to wife; I must be on the road. I am for Hauterive out of
the hanging Abbot's country. He'll be itching about that new gallows
of his, thinking how I should look up there."
He kissed them both very heartily and trudged out into the mist,
waving his hand.