Page:The Story and Song of Black Roderick.djvu/27

Rh she called three times upon Earl Roderick, she paused as though for an answer, and smiled no more. “Thee,” quoth she, “I perish for, I hunger for. Thou lovest me not at all.”

‘So did she sit and make her moan upon the hill, and here watched she the lights in the far windows of her lost home quench themselves one by one. “Now,” quoth she, “my mother sleepeth, and now my father. And now by all am I forgotten.” Then did she steal, in the dim light, down from the hill, and I saw her no more.’

‘What didst thou tell to her, old witch?’ quoth the Black Earl, ‘as she passed weeping? Didst thou speak to her no word?’

‘I stopped her as she passed me, proud Earl,’ quoth the crone, ‘for she was gentle, and held her head not too high to look upon one old and near unto death.

‘“Weep not,” said I, “but spread to me thy fingers, so I may read what fate thou holdest in thy palm.” And like a child she smiled between her tears. 2—2