'
'Yet thou hast seen me,' she said; 'yet not altogether as I am now;'
and therewith she smiled on him friendly.
'How is this?' said he; 'art thou a skin-changer?'
'Yea, in a fashion,' she said. 'Hearken! dost thou perchance
remember a day of last summer when there was a market holden in
Burgstead; and there stood in the way over against the House of the
Face a tall old carle who was trucking deer-skins for diverse gear;
and with him was a queen, tall and dark-skinned, somewhat well-
liking, her hair bound up in a white coif so that none of it could be
seen; by the token that she had a large stone of mountain blue set in
silver stuck in the said coif?'
As she spoke she set her hand to her bosom and drew something from
it, and held forth her hand to Gold-mane, and lo amidst the palm the
great blue stone set in silver.
'Wondrous as a dream is this,' said Face-of-god, 'for these twain I
remember well, and what followed.'
She said: 'I will tell thee that. There came a man of the Shepherd-
Folk, drunk or foolish, or both, who began to chaffer with the big
carle; but ever on the queen were his eyes set, and presently he put
forth his hand to her to clip her, whereon the big carle hove up his
fist and smote him, so that he fell to earth noseling.
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