d I lying well-nigh within touch
of her hand; but she said: 'O my beloved, why dost thou delay to come to
me? For I deemed that this eve at least thou wouldst come, so many and
strong as are the meshes of love which we have cast about thy feet. Oh
come to-morrow at the least and latest, or what shall I do, and wherewith
shall I quench the grief of my heart? Or else why am I the daughter of
the Undying King, the Lord of the Treasure of the Sea? Why have they
wrought new marvels for me, and compelled the Ravagers of the Coasts to
serve me, and sent false dreams flitting on the wings of the night? Yea,
why is the earth fair and fruitful, and the heavens kind above it, if
thou comest not to-night, nor to-morrow, nor the day after? And I the
daughter of the Undying, on whom the days shall grow and grow as the
grains of sand which the wind heaps up above the sea-beach. And life
shall grow huger and more hideous round about the lonely one, like the
ling-worm laid upon the gold, that waxeth thereby, till it lies all
around about the house of the queen entrapped, the moveless unending ring
of the years that change not.'

"So she spake till the weeping ended her words, and I was all abashed
with shame and pale with anguish. I stole quietly from my lair unheeded
of any, save that one damsel said that a rabbit ran in the hedge, and
another that a blackbird stirred in the thicket. Behold me, then, that
my quest beginneth again amidst the tangle of lies whereinto I have been
entrapped."

CHAPTER XIV: HALLBLITHE HAS SPEECH WITH THE KING AGAIN

He stood up when he had made an end, as a man ready for the road; but
they lay there downcast and abashed, and had no words to answer him. For
the Sea-eagle was sorry that his faring-fellow was hapless, and was sorry
that he was sorry; and as for the damsel, she had not known but that she
was leading the goodly Spearman to the fulfilment of his heart's desire.
Albeit after a while she spake again and said:

"Dear friends, day is gone and night is at hand; now to-night it were ill
lodging at yonder house; and the next house on our backward road is over
far for wayworn folk. But hard by through the thicket is a fair little
wood-lawn, by the lip of a pool in the stream wherein we may bathe us to-
morrow morning; and it is grassy and flowery and sheltered from all winds
that blow, and I have victual enough in my wallet. Let us sup and rest
there under the bare heaven, as oft i