things, to wit, that thou lovest me, and I thee, wilt thou not come
hither, that I may cast mine arms about thee, and kiss thee, if not
thy kind lips or thy friendly face at all, yet at least thy dear
hand: yea, that I may touch thy body in some wise?"

She looked on him steadily, and said softly: "Nay, this above all
things must not be; and that it may not be is a part of the evil
which entangles us. But hearken, friend, once again I tell thee
that thy voice is over loud in this wilderness fruitful of evil.
Now I have told thee, indeed, of two things whereof we both wot; but
next I must needs tell thee of things whereof I wot, and thou
wottest not. Yet this were better, that thou pledge thy word not to
touch so much as one of my hands, and that we go together a little
way hence away from these tumbled stones, and sit down upon the open
greensward; whereas here is cover if there be spying abroad."

Again, as she spoke, she turned very pale; but Walter said: "Since
it must be so, I pledge thee my word to thee as I love thee."

And therewith she knelt down, and did on her foot-gear, and then
sprang lightly over the rivulet; and then the twain of them went
side by side some half a furlong thence, and sat down, shadowed by
the boughs of a slim quicken-tree growing up out of the greensward,
whereon for a good space around was neither bush nor brake.

There began the maiden to talk soberly, and said: "This is what I
must needs say to thee now, that thou art come into a land perilous
for any one that loveth aught of good; from which, forsooth, I were
fain that thou wert gotten away safely, even though I should die of
longing for thee. As for myself, my peril is, in a measure, less