She broke in: 'Gold-mane, stay thy prayer and hold thy peace for
this time, lest thou repent when repentance availeth not. And this I
say because I am none of the Gods nor akin to them, save far off
through the generations, as art thou also, and all men of goodly
kindred. Now I bid thee eat thy meat, since 'tis ill talking betwixt
a full man and a fasting; and I have dight it myself with mine own
hands; for Bow-may and the Wood-mother went away with the rest three
hours before dawn. Come sit and eat as thou hast a hardy heart; as
forsooth thou shouldest do if I were a very goddess. Take heed,
friend, lest I take thee for some damsel of the lower Dale arrayed in
Earl's garments.'

She laughed therewith, and leaned toward him and put forth her hand
to him, and he took it and caressed it; and the exceeding beauty of
her body and of the raiment which was as it were a part of her and
her loveliness, made her laughter and her friendly words strange to
him, as if one did not belong to the other; as in a dream it might
be. Nevertheless he did as she bade him, and sat at the board and
ate, while she leaned forward on the arm of her chair and spake to
him in friendly wise. And he wondered as she spake that she knew so
much of him and his: and he kept saying to himself: 'She drew me
hither; wherefore did she so?'

But she said: 'Gold-mane, how fareth thy father the Alderman? is he
as good a wright as ever?'

He told her: Yea, that ever was his hammer on the iron, the copper,
and the gold, and that no wright in the Dale was as deft as he.