Page:Wood Beyond the World.djvu/252

 The dark flush had left her face, and she looked on him exceeding sweetly, and spoke steadily and clearly: Even so it is, beloved. Therewith she set her hand to the girdle that girt her loins, and did it off, and held it out toward him, and said: Here is the token; this is a maid’s girdle, and the woman is ungirt.

So he took the girdle and her hand withal, and cast his arms about her: and amidst the sweetness of their love and their safety, and assured hope of many days of joy, they spake together of the hours when they fared the razor-edge betwixt guile and misery and death, and the sweeter yet it grew to them because of it; and many things she told him ere the dawn, of the evil days bygone, and the dealings of the Mistress with her, till the grey day stole into the chamber to make manifest her loveliness; which, forsooth, was better even than the deeming of that man amidst the throng whose heart had been so drawn towards her. So they rejoiced together in the new day.

But when the full day was, and Walter arose, he called his thanes and wise men to the council; and first he bade open the prison-doors, and feed the needy and clothe