There is no other business?” asked Radulfus.

“None, Father?”

“Then this chapter is concluded,” said the abbot,and led the way out of the chapter-house into the sun-bleachedAugust grasses of the cemetery.

Brother Cadfael went up into the town afterVespers, in the cooling sunlight of a clear evening, to sup withhis friend Hugh Beringar, and visit his godson Giles, three and ahalf years old, long and strong and something of a benevolenttyrant to the entire household. In view of the sacred duty such asponsor has towards his charge. Cadfael had leave to visit thehouse with reasonable regularity, and if the time he spent with theboy was occupied more often in play than in the serious admonitionsof a responsible godparent, neither Giles nor his own parents hadany complaint to make.

“He pays more heed to you,” said Aline, looking onwith smiling serenity, “than he does to me. But he’lltire you out before you can do as much for him. Well for youit’s near his bedtime.”

She was as fair as Hugh was black, primrose-fair, andfine-boned, and a shade taller than her husband. The child wasbuilt on the same long, slender lines, and flaxen like her. Someday he would top his father by a head. Hugh himself had foretoldit, when first he saw his newborn heir, a whiter child, come withthe approach of Christmas, the finest of gifts for the festival.Now at three years old he had the boisterous energy of a healthypup, and the same whole-hearted abandonment to sleep when energywas spent. He was carried away at length in Aline’s arms tohis bed, and Hugh and Cadfael were left to sit down companionablytogether over their wine, and look back over the events of theday.