m.

Then she looked at him steadily, and said: "It is indeed grievous that
thou shouldest forget thine old friends for me, and that it should have
come into thy mind that this fair and merry house was not made for thy
fair fellows and thy delight with them, but for me, the chance-comer.
For, hearken, whereas thou saidst e'en now, that I was become a part of
thy life, how can that be? For if I become the poor captive again, how
canst thou get to me, thou who art thyself a castaway, as thou hast told
me? Yea, but even so, I shall be too low for thee to come down to me.
And if I become what I should be, then I must tell thee that I shall
be too high for thee to climb up to me; so that in one way or other we
shall be sundered, who have but met for an hour or two."

He hung his head a while as they stood there face to face, for both of
them had arisen from the board; but presently he looked up to her with
glittering eyes, and said: "Yea, for an hour or two; why then do we
tarry and linger, and say what we have no will to say, and refrain from
what our hearts bid us?"

Therewith he caught hold of her right wrist, and laid his hand on her
left shoulder, and this first time that he had touched her, it was as if
a fire ran through all his body and changed it into the essence of her:
neither was there any naysay in her eyes, nor any defence against him in
the yielding body of her. But even in that nick of time he drew back a
little, and turned his head, as a man listening, toward the door, and
said: "Hist! hist! Dost thou hear, maiden?" She turned deadly pale: "O
what is it? What is it? Yea, I hear; it is horses drawing nigh, and the
sound of hounds baying. But may it not be thy fellows coming back?"

"Nay, nay," he said; "they rode not in armour. Hark to it! and these
hounds are deep-voiced sleuth-dogs! But come now, there may yet be
time."

He turned, and caught up axe and shield from off the wall, and drew her
toward a window that looked to the north, and peered out of it warily;
but turned back straightway, and said: "Nay, it is too late that way,
they are all round about the house. Maiden, get thou up into the solar
by this stair, and thou wilt find hiding-place behind the traverse of
the bed; and if they go away, and my fellows come in due time, then art
thou safe. But if not, surely they shall do thee no hurt; for I think,
indeed, that thou art some great one."

And he fell to striding down the hall toward the door;