Our priest, Father Oswin, found me such craftsmen as I needed.
"Let me rebuild the church first, father," I had said to him when I returned thus rich.
"Not so, my son.

That is a matter which must be taken in hand presently, and not hurriedly.

Shelter first the man who shall do it, and provide for the fatherless at Wormingford, and it will be better done after all." Therefore I was very busy.

And on this day of which I speak I walked in the late afternoon, and must needs turn aside into the woods by the mere, for I had often done that of late, loving the place for old memories the more now that Olaf came into them.

It seemed to me that I had never seen the still mere look more wondrously beautiful than on this day, for we had had neither wind nor rain to mar the autumn beauty of the trees, and that was doubled by the mirror of the water.
So I lingered in that place where Olaf and I had been so nearly slain, thinking of that night and of many other days, and then I heard a footstep coming through the wood, and turned to see who it might be, for I had never met any other in the haunted place.
And there came towards me slowly a white-robed maiden who looked steadfastly at me, saying nought.