Then was she silent a while, and Ralph brake not the silence.
Then she turned to him with a face grown merry and smiling, and said:
"Lo! how the poor lad yearneth for meat, as well he may, so long
as the day hath been. Ah, beloved, thou must be patient a little.
For belike our servants have not yet heard of the wedding of us.
So we twain must feed each the other. Is that so much amiss?"

He laughed in her face for love, and took her by the wrist,
but she drew her hand away and went into the cave, and came forth
anon holding a copper kettle with an iron bow, and a bag of meal,
which she laid at his feet; then she went into the cave again,
and brought forth a flask of wine and a beaker; then she caught up
the little cauldron, which was well-beaten, and thin and light,
and ran down to the stream therewith, and came up thence presently,
bearing it full of water on her head, going as straight and
stately as the spear is seen on a day of tourney, moving over
the barriers that hide the knight, before he lays it in the rest.
She came up to him and set the water-kettle before him, and put
her hands on his shoulders, and kissed his cheek, and then
stepped back from him and smote her palms together, and said:
"Yea, it is well! But there are yet more things to do before we rest.
There is the dighting of the chamber, and the gathering of wood
for the fire, and the mixing of the meal, and the kneading
and the baking of cakes; and all that is my work, and there is
the bringing of the quarry for the roast, and that is thine."

Then she ran into the cave and brought forth a bow and a quiver
of arrows, and said: "Art thou somewhat of an archer?"
Quoth he: "I shoot not ill." "And I," she said, "shoot well,
all woodcraft comes handy to me. But this eve I must trust