I also went to Burgstead with him twice, as I told
thee erst; and I saw thee, and I deemed that thou wouldest lightly
become our friend; and it came into my mind that I myself might wed
thee, and that the House of the Face thereby might have affinity
thenceforth with the Children of the Wolf.'
He said: 'Why didst thou deem thus of me, O friend?'
She laughed and said: 'Dost thou long to hear me say the words when
thou knowest my thought well? So be it. I saw thee both young and
fair; and I knew thee to be the son of a noble, worthy, guileless man
and of a beauteous woman of great wits and good rede. And I found
thee to be kind and open-handed and simple like thy father, and like
thy mother wiser than thou thyself knew of thyself; and that thou
wert desirous of deeds and fain of women.'
She was silent for a while, and he also: then he said: 'Didst thou
draw me to the woods and to thee?'
She reddened and said: 'I am no spell-wife: but true it is that
Wood-mother made a waxen image of thee, and thrust through the heart
thereof the pin of my girdle-buckle, and stroked it every morning
with an oak-bough over which she had sung spells.
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