out, and there he saw, standing with her face upturned in speech to him,
a wonderfully beautiful woman, clothed from her throat till over her feet
in long white raiment, ungirt, unbroidered, and with a veil, that was
thrown off from her face, and hung from her head, streaming out in the
blast of the wind: which veil was what had struck against his face:
beneath her veil her golden hair streamed out too, and with the veil, so
that it touched his face now and then. She was very fair, but she did
not look young either, because of her statue-like features. She spoke to
him slowly and queenly; "I pray you give me shelter in your house for an
hour, that I may rest, and so go on my journey again." He was too much
terrified to answer in words, and so only bowed his head: and she swept
past him in stately wise to the room where the others sat, and he
followed her, trembling.

A cold shiver ran through the other men when she entered and bowed low to
them, and they turned deadly pale, but dared not move; and there she sat
while they gazed at her, sitting there and wondering at her beauty, which
seemed to grow every minute; though she was plainly not young, oh no, but
rather very, very old, who could say how old? there she sat, and her
long, long hair swept down in one curve from her head and just touched
the floor. Her face had the tokens of a deep sorrow on it, ah! a mighty
sorrow, yet not so mighty as that it might mar her ineffable loveliness;
that sorrow-mark seemed to gather too, and at last the gloriously-slow
music of her words flowed from her lips: "Friends, has one with the
appearance of a youth come here lately; one with long brown hair,
interwoven with threads of gold, flowing down from out his polished steel
helmet; with dark blue eyes and high white forehead, and mail-coat over
his breast, where the light and shadow lie in waves as he moves; have you
seen such an one, very beautiful?"