Some of them was longer and some of them was shorter, them quests, but mostly, Martha says, they was fur a twelvemonth and a day.

And then you are released from your vow and one of these here queens gives you a whack over the shoulder with a sword and says: "Arise, Sir Marmeluke, I dub you a night." And then it is legal fur you to go out and rescue people and reform them and spear them if they don't see things your way, and come between husband and wife when they row, and do a heap of good in the world.

Well, they was other kind of quests too, but mostly you married somebody, or was dubbed a night, or found the party you was looking fur, in the end.

And Martha had it all fixed up in her own mind I was in a quest to find my father.
Fur, says she, he is purty certain to be a powerful rich man and more'n likely a earl.
The way I was found, Martha says, kind o' pints to the idea they was a earl mixed up in it somewhere.

She had read a lot about earls, and knew their ways.