A linen
cloth was thrown over her body, but her arms lay out of it before
her. Beside her sat the Alderman, his face sober enough, but not as
one in heavy sorrow; and anigh him was another chair as if someone
had but just got up from it. There was no one else in the hall save
two women of the Woodlanders, one of whom was cooking some potion on
the hearth, and another was sweeping the floor anigh of bran or some
such stuff, which had been thrown down to sop up the blood.
So Folk-might went up to the Bride, sorely dreading the image of
death which she had grown to be, and sorely loving the woman she was
and would be.
He knelt down by the bedside, heeding Iron-face little, though he
nodded friendly to him, and he held his face close to hers; but she
had her eyes shut and did not open them till he had been there a
little while; and then they opened and fixed themselves on his
without surprise or change. Then she lifted her right hand (for it
was in her left shoulder and side that she had been hurt) and slowly
laid it on his head, and drew his face to hers and kissed it fondly,
as she both smiled and let the tears run over from her eyes.
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