hould I tell thee all my thought, and it is on my mind, that for a
many hundreds of years, yea, while our people were yet heathen, when a
man should wed a maid all the folk knew of it, and were witnesses of
the day and the hour thereof: now thou knowest that the time draws
nigh when we may look for those messengers of the Innocent Folk, who
come every spring to this cave to see if there be any whom they may
speed on the way to the Well at the World's End. Therefore if thou
wilt (and not otherwise) I would abide their coming if it be not over
long delayed; so that there may be others to witness our wedding
besides God, and those his creatures who dwell in the wilderness. Yet
shall all be as thou wilt."

"How shall I not do after thy bidding?" said Ralph. "I will abide
their coming: yet would that they were here to-day! And one thing I
will pray of thee, that because of them thou wilt not forbear, or cause
me to forbear, such kissing and caressing as is meet betwixt
troth-plight lovers."

She laughed and said: "Nay, why should I torment thee...or me? We
will not tarry for this." And therewith she took her arm about his
neck and kissed him oft.

Then they said naught awhile, but sat listening happily to the song of
the pairing birds. At last Ralph said: "What was it, beloved, that
thou wert perchance to tell me concerning the thing that caused thine
heart to see that thy betrothed, for whom thou wepst or seemedst to
weep at the ale-house at Bourton Abbas, was of no avail to thee?"

She said: "It was the sight of thee; and I thought also how I might
never be thine. For that I have sorrowed many a time since."

Said Ralph: "I am young and unmighty, yet lo! I heal thy sorrow as if
I were an exceeding mighty man. And now I tell thee that I am minded
to go back with thee to Upmeads straightway; for love will prevail."

"Nay," she said, "that word is but from the teeth outwards; for thou
knowest, as I do, that the perils of the homeward road shall overcome
us, despite of love, if we have not drunk of the Well at the World's
End."

Again they were silent awhile, but anon she arose to her feet and said:
"Now must I needs dight victual for us twain; but first" (and she
smiled on him withal), "how is it that thou hast not asked me if the
beast did me any hurt? Art thou grown careless of me, now the wedding
is so nigh?"

He said: "Nay, but could I not see thee that thou wert not hurt?
There was no mark of bl