'How then,' said he, 'for she was as dark-skinned as a dwarf, and
thou so bright and fair?'

She said: 'Well, if the woods are good for nothing else, yet are
they good for the growing of herbs, and I know the craft of simpling;
and with one of these herbs had I stained my skin and my brother's
also. And it showed the darker beneath the white coif.'

'Yea,' said he, 'but why must ye needs fare in feigned shapes? Ye
would have been welcome guests in the Dale howsoever ye had come.'

'I may not tell thee hereof as now,' said she.

Said Gold-mane: 'Yet thou mayst belike tell me wherefore was that
thy brother desired to slay me yesterday, if he knew me, who I was.'

'Gold-mane,' she said, 'thou art not slain, so little story need be
made of that: for the rest, belike he knew thee not at that moment.
So it falls with us, that we look to see foes rather than friends in
the wild-woods. Many uncouth things are therein. Moreover, I must
tell thee of my brother that whiles he is as the stalled bull late
let loose, and nothing is good to him save battle and onset; and then
is he blind and knows not friend from foe.' Said Face-of-god: 'Thou
hast asked of me and mine; wilt thou not tell me of thee and thine?'

'Nay,' she said, 'not as now; thou must betake thee to the way.
Whither wert thou wending when thou happenedst upon us?'

He said: 'I know not; I was seeking something, but I knew not what--
meseemeth that now I have found it.'