Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/92

 CHAPTER XV. SURLY JOHN BRINGS A GUEST TO WETHERMEL.

E may well think that the very next time, which indeed was on the morrow, that Osberne went to the Bight of the Cloven Knoll, he went girt with Board-cleaver, and showed it to his friend; and she looked somewhat sober at the sight of it, and said: I pray thee, Osberne, draw it not forth from the sheath. In nowise may I draw it, said he, for I am told never to draw it till I have my foe before me; for ever it will have a life betwixt the coming forth from the sheath and its going back again. I fear me, she said, that thou wilt have to draw it often, so that many a tale will be told of it, and perhaps at last the death of thee. And therewith she put her hands up to her face and wept. But he comforted her with kind words, till the tears were gone. Then she looked at him long and lovingly, and said at last: I know not how it is, but thou seemest to me changed and grown less like a child, as though some new might had come to thee. Now I may not ask thee who has done this to thee, and given thee the sword, for if thou mightest thou wouldst have told me. But tell me this, hast thou all this from a friend or a foe? He said: Dost thou indeed see that I am grown mightier? Well, it is so; and true it is that I may not tell thee who is the giver; but I may tell thee that it is a friend. But art thou not glad of my gain? She smiled