Hugh flung an arm round his friend’s shoulders, laughing.“Oh, if you’re to start remembering, I can more thanmatch you. Better agree to let old deeds rest. We were always themost reasonable of men. Come on, bear me company as far as thegatehouse. It must be getting round towards Vespers.”

They made their way along the gravel path together withouthaste, beside the box hedge and through the vegetable garden towhere the rose beds began. Brother Winfrid was just coming over thecrest from the slope of the pease field, striding springily withhis spade over his shoulder.

“Get leave soon, and come up and see your godson,”said Hugh as they rounded the box hedge, and the hum and the bustleof the court reached out to surround them like the busy sound ofbees in swarm. “As soon as we reach town Giles begins askingfor you.”

“I will, gladly. I miss him when you go north, buthe’s better there through the summer than here shut withinwalls. And Aline’s well?” He asked it serenely, wellaware that he would have heard of it at once if there had beenanything amiss.

“Blooming like a rose. But come and see for yourself.She’ll be expecting you.”

They came round the comer of the guest hall into the court,still almost as lively as a town square. One more horse was beingled down to the stables; Brother Denis was receiving the arrivingguest, dusty from the road, at the door of his domain; two or threeattendant novices were running to and fro with brychans and candlesand pitchers of water; visitors already settled stood watching thenewcomers throng in at the gatehouse, greeting friends among them,renewing old acquaintances and embarking on new, while the childrenof the cloister, oblates and schoolboys alike, gathered in littlegroups, all eyes and ears, bouncing and shrilling like crickets,and darting about among the pilgrims as excitedly as dogs at afair. The passing of Brother Jerome, scuttling up the court fromthe cloister towards the infirmary, would normally have subdued theboys into demure silence, but in this cheerful turmoil it was easyto avoid him.