Then he smiled and said; "As for that which thou sayest,
that she had been meeter for me than thou, I know not this word.
For look you, beloved, she came, and passed, and is gone,
but thou art there and shalt endure."

She stayed, and turned and faced him at that word;
and love so consumed her, that all sportive words failed her;
yea and it was as if mirth and light-heartedness were swallowed up
in the fire of her love; and all thought of other folk departed
from him as he felt her tears of love and joy upon his face,
and she kissed and embraced him there in the wilderness.



CHAPTER 10

Of the Desert-House and the Chamber of Love in the Wilderness


Then in a while they grew sober and went on their ways,
and the sun was westering behind them, and casting long shadows.
And in a little while they were come out of the thick woods and were
in a country of steep little valleys, grassy, besprinkled with
trees and bushes, with hills of sandstone going up from them,
which were often broken into cliffs rising sheer from the
tree-beset bottoms: and they saw plenteous deer both great
and small, and the wild things seemed to fear them but little.
To Ralph it seemed an exceeding fair land, and he was as joyous
as it was fair; but the Lady was pensive, and at last she said:
"Thou deemest it fair, and so it is; yet is it the lonesomest