So would I eat before thee, and sign the meat with the sign of
the Earth-god's Hammer, to show thee that he is in error concerning
me, and that I am a very woman flesh and fell, as my kindred were
before me.'
He laughed and was exceeding glad, and said: 'Tell me now, kind
friend, dost thou deem that Stone-face's tales are mere mockery of
his dreams, and that he is beguiled by empty semblances or less? Or
are there such Wights in the Waste.'
'Nay,' she said, 'the man is a true man; and of these things are
there many ancient tales which we may not doubt. Yet so it is that
such wights have I never yet seen, nor aught to scare me save evil
men: belike it is that I have been over-much busied in dealing with
sorrow and ruin to look after them: or it may be that they feared me
and the wrath-breeding grief of the kindred.'
He looked at her earnestly, and the wisdom of her heart seemed to
enter into his; but she said: 'It is of men we must talk, and of me
and thee. Come with me, my friend.'
And she stepped lightly over the threshold and drew him in. The Hall
was stern and grim and somewhat dusky, for its windows were but
small: it was all of stone, both walls and roof.
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