She came up to him,
and laid her hand to his cheek and the golden locks of his head (for
he was bare-headed), and said to him, smiling:
'Gold-mane! thou badest me bear arms, and Folk-might also constrained
me thereto. Lo thou!'
Said Face-of-god: 'Folk-might is wise then, even as I am; and
forsooth as thou art. For bethink thee if the bow drawn at a venture
should speed the eyeless shaft against thy breast, and send me forth
a wanderer from my Folk! For how could I bear the sight of the fair
Dale, and no hope to see thee again therein?'
She said: 'The heart is light within me to-day. Deemest thou that
this is strange? Or dost thou call to mind that which thou spakest
the other day, that it was of no avail to stand in the Doom-ring of
the Folk and bear witness against ourselves? This will I not. This
is no light-mindedness that thou beholdest in me, but the valiancy
that the Fathers have set in mine heart. Deem not, O Gold-mane, fear
not, that we shall die before they dight the bride-bed for us.'
He would have kissed her mouth, but she put him away with her hand,
and doffed her helm and laid it on the grass, and said:
'This is not the last time that thou shalt kiss me, Gold-mane, my
dear; and yet I long for it as if it were, so high as the Fathers
have raised me up this morn above fear and sadness.
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