'Art thou for the great mountains seeking gems?' she said. 'Yet go
not thither to-day: for who knoweth what thou shalt meet there that
shall be thy foe?'

He said: 'Nay, nay; I have nought to do but to abide here as long as
I may, looking upon thee and hearkening to thy voice.'

Her eyes were upon his, but yet she did not seem to see him, and for
a while she answered not; and still he wondered that mere words
should come from so fair a thing; for whether she moved foot, or
hand, or knee, or turned this way or that, each time she stirred it
was a caress to his very heart.

He spake again: 'May I not abide here a while? What scathe may be
in that?'

'It is not so,' she said; 'thou must depart, and that straightway:
lo, there lieth thy spear which the Wood-mother hath brought in from
the waste. Take thy gear to thee and wend thy ways. Have patience!
I will lead thee to the place where we first met and there give thee
farewell.'

Therewith she arose and he also perforce, and when they came to the
doorway she stepped across the threshold and then turned back and
gave him her hand and so led him forth, the sun flashing back from
her golden raiment. Together they went over the short grey grass of
that hillside till they came to the place where he had arisen from
that wrestle with her brother. There she stayed him and said: