and a little gilded beaker; and all this he did with but little
noise; for he would not be questioned, lest he should have to answer
himself as well as others.

Thus he went quietly out of doors, for the door was but latched,
since no bolts or bars or locks were used in Burgstead, and through
the town-gate, which stood open, save when rumours of war were about.
He turned his face straight towards Wildlake's Way, walking briskly,
but at whiles looking back over his shoulder toward the East to note
what way was made by the dawning, and how the sky lightened above the
mountain passes.

By then he was come to the place where the Maiden Ward was held in
the summer the dawn was so far forward that all things had their due
colours, and were clear to see in the shadowless day. It was a
bright morning, with an easterly air stirring that drave away the
haze and dried the meadows, which had otherwise been rimy; for it was
cold. Gold-mane lingered on the place a little, and his eyes fell on
the road, as dusty yet as in Redesman's song; for the autumn had been
very dry, and the strip of green that edged the outside of the way
was worn and dusty also. On the edge of it, half in the dusty road,
half on the worn grass, was a long twine of briony red-berried and
black-leaved; and right in the midst of the road were two twigs of
great-leaved sturdy pollard oak, as though they had been thrown aside
there yesterday by women or children a-sporting; and the deep white
dust yet held the marks of feet, some bare, some shod, crossing each
other here and there. Face-of-god smiled as he passed on, as a man
with a happy thought; for his mind showed him a picture of the Bride
as she would be leading the Maiden Ward next summer, and singing
first among the singers, and he saw her as clearly as he had often