He hung his head a while as they stood there face to face,
for both of them had arisen from the board; but presently he
looked up to her with glittering eyes, and said: "Yea, for
an hour or two; why then do we tarry and linger, and say
what we have no will to say, and refrain from what our
hearts bid us?"

Therewith he caught hold of her right wrist, and laid his
hand on her left shoulder, and this first time that he had
touched her, it was as if a fire ran through all his body
and changed it into the essence of her: neither was there
any naysay in her eyes, nor any defence against him in the
yielding body of her. But even in that nick of time he drew
back a little, and turned his head, as a man listening,
toward the door, and said: "Hist! hist! Dost thou hear,
maiden?" She turned deadly pale: "O what is it? What is it?
Yea, I hear; it is horses drawing nigh, and the sound of
hounds baying. But may it not be thy fellows coming back?"

"Nay, nay," he said; "they rode not in armour. Hark to it!
and these hounds are deep-voiced sleuth-dogs! But come now,
there may yet be time."

He turned, and caught up axe and shield from off the wall,
and drew her toward a window that looked to the north, and
peered out of it warily; but turned back straightway, and
said: "Nay, it is too late that way, they are all round
about the house. Maiden, get thou up into the solar by this
stair, and thou wilt find hiding-place behind the traverse