Presently you will hear them from herself, for she is here.

Glad am I to see you." "There is no fresh hope ?" I asked, as we went in.
"None; but we hope much from you.

At least, your coming will cheer the old king, for he is well-nigh despairing." Now I was prepared to see some change in Gerent by reason of all this sorrow and trouble, but not for all that was plain when I first set eyes on him presently.

Old and shrunken he seemed, and his voice was weary and dull.

Yet there came a new light into his eyes as he saw me, and he greeted me most kindly, bidding me, after a few words of welcome, to rest and eat awhile after the long ride, before we spoke together of troubles.
So in a little time I sought him again, and found him in a room with warm sunlight streaming into it, making the strange pictured walls bright and cheerful, and yet somewhat over close for one who loves the open air or the free timbered roof that loses itself in the smoke wreaths overhead, with the wind blowing through it as it blows through the forest whence it was wrought, and with twitter of birds to mind one of that also.