"
As soon as Rosader was come within the reach of her tongue's end,
Aliena began thus:
"Why, how now, gentle forester, what wind hath kept you from hence?
that being so newly married, you have no more care of your Rosalynde,
but to absent yourself so many days? Are these the passions you
painted out so in your sonnets and roundelays? I see well hot love is
soon cold, and that the fancy of men is like to a loose feather that
wandereth in the air with the blast of every wind."
"You are deceived, mistress," quoth Rosader; "'twas a copy[1] of
unkindness that kept me hence, in that, I being married, you carried
away the bride; but if I have given any occasion of offence by
absenting myself these three days, I humbly sue for pardon, which you
must grant of course, in that the fault is so friendly confessed with
penance. But to tell you the truth, fair mistress and my good
Rosalynde, my eldest brother by the injury of Torismond is banished
from Bordeaux, and by chance he and I met in the forest."
[Footnote 1: quantity.]
And here Rosader discoursed unto them what had happened betwixt them,
which reconcilement made them glad, especially Ganymede.
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