Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/130

 far from it? and then how long dost thou look to be away? He spake, and his face was writhen with the coming tears, so sore his heart was stung by her sorrow: It is indeed true that I am come to bid thee farewell for awhile, and this is the manner of it. And therewith he told her all as it was, and said withal: Now I can do nought save to bid thee gather thy valiance to thee and not to wound my heart with the wildness of thy grief. And look thou, my dear; e'en now thou wert saying thy yearning that mine arms were round about thy body. Now are we no longer altogether children, and I will tell thee that it is many a day since I have longed for this; and now I know that thou longest that our bodies might meet. Belike thou wilt deem me hard and self-seeking if I tell thee that there is more joy in me for the gain of that knowledge than there is sorrow in my heart for thy pain. Nay, nay, she said, but for that I deem thee the dearer and the dearer. See then, sweetheart, said he, how might it ever come about that we might meet bodily if I abode ever at Wethermel and in the Dale in peace and quietness, while thou dwelt still with thy carlines on the other side of this fierce stream? Must I not take chance-hap and war by the hand and follow where they lead, that I may learn the wideness of the world, and compass earth and sea till I have gone about the Sundering Flood and found thy little body somewhere in the said wide world? And maybe this is the beginning thereof.