g one.
Shall I not stride over, and come to thee, that we may sit down together
side by side on the green grass?"

"Nay," she said, "not yet; tarry a while till I have told thee of
matters. I must now tell thee of my thoughts in order."

Her colour went and came now, and she plaited the folds of her gown with
restless fingers. At last she said: "Now the first thing is this; that
though thou hast seen me first only within this hour, thou hast set thine
heart upon me to have me for thy speech-friend and thy darling. And if
this be not so, then is all my speech, yea and all my hope, come to an
end at once."

"O yea!" said Walter, "even so it is: but how thou hast found this out I
wot not; since now for the first time I say it, that thou art indeed my
love, and my dear and my darling."

"Hush," she said, "hush! lest the wood have ears, and thy speech is loud:
abide, and I shall tell thee how I know it. Whether this thy love shall
outlast the first time that thou holdest my body in thine arms, I wot
not, nor dost thou. But sore is my hope that it may be so; for I also,
though it be but scarce an hour since I set eyes on thee, have cast mine
eyes on thee to have thee for my love and my darling, and my
speech-friend. And this is how I wot that thou lovest me, my friend. Now
is all this dear and joyful, and overflows my heart with sweetness. But
now must I tell thee of the fear and the evil which lieth behind it."

Then Walter stretched out his hands to her, and cried out: "Yea, yea! But
whatever evil entangle us, now we both know these two things, to wit,
that thou lovest me, and I thee, wilt thou not come hither, that I may
cast mine arms about thee, and kiss thee, if not thy kind lips or thy
friendly face at all, yet at least thy dear hand: yea, that I may touch
thy body in some wise?"

She looked on him steadily, and said softly: "Nay, this above all things
must not be; and that it may not be is a part of the evil which entangles
us. But hearken, friend, once again I tell thee that thy voice is over
loud in this wilderness fruitful of evil. Now I have told thee, indeed,
of two things whereof we both wot; but next I must needs tell thee of
things whereof I wot, and thou wottest not. Yet this were better, that
thou pledge thy word not to touch so much as one of my hands, and that we
go together a little way hence away from these tumbled stones, and sit
down upon the open greensward; whereas here is cover if