The two brothers sat and talked by the smoldering fire until late that night, speaking of divers things.  It was no wish of Sir Stephen’s that his unexpected coming should interrupt or change the holiday plans.  Indeed, many of the guests were his friends as well as his brother’s.  Eleanor wondered a little next day, why this recovered kinsman made in one way so little difference in the life of the household, and yet made so deep an impression.  He was not himself merry, and still he seemed to enter into the joy of others and make it more satisfying.  She tried to express this thought to her mother.  The lady smiled, and sighed.

“He is a very good man,” she said.  “He was always good, and although he has had great troubles they have not made him hard or bitter—­which is not a common thing.  We must do all that we can for him while he is here, for that will not be long.  He is going back among the paynim.”

“But why, mother?” asked Eleanor, bewildered.

Lady Philippa shook her head.  “I think because he is almost—­or quite—­a saint.  Perhaps he will tell you by-and-by.”

It seemed passing strange that Sir Stephen should wish to return to the Moslems after suffering as he had suffered among them, but there was no time for further discussion then.

Later in the day, when Sir Walter was talking with his steward and Lady Philippa was giving final directions to maids and cooks and dapifers, Eleanor and Roger found Sir Stephen seated alone by the flickering, purring Yule-log.  Before they quite knew it they were telling him of all their favorite occupations and plays.  He seemed as much interested as if they had been his own children.

“This Yule,” he said musingly after a little, “might be in another world from the last.  And once I spent the day in Bethlehem of Judea.”

It sounded almost as if he had said he had been to heaven.  They had never seen any one who had actually been in Bethlehem.

“There was a company of us,” he went on, “some twenty in all, who landed after a rough voyage, very sea-weary and thankful to the saints.  Glad were we to find the Knights Templars ready to guard us through the desert.  Since our people have built churches and shrines in the Holy Land, and pilgrims who visit these places bring with them gold and gems for the decking thereof, there be many bands of robbers who infest the desert in the hope of plunder.  Often finding no spoil, they maltreat or murder their victims.  For this cause were the Templars and the Hospitallers established.  The Templars may have grown proud and arrogant as some say, but I must give them this credit, that their black and white banner is mightily respected by the heathen.