'
Then she smiled and shut her eyes and said: 'And if I live, as
indeed I hope, and how glad and glad I shall be to live, then shalt
thou bring me to thy house and thy bed, that I may not depart from
thee while both our lives last.'
And she opened her eyes and looked at him; and he might not speak for
a while, so ravished as he was betwixt joy and sorrow. But the
Alderman arose and took a gold ring from off his arm, and spake:
'This is the gold ring of the God of the Face, and I bear it on mine
arm betwixt the Folk and the God in all man-motes, and I bore it
through the battle to-day; and it is as holy a ring as may be; and
since ye are plighting troth, and I am the witness thereof, it were
good that ye held this ring together and called the God to witness,
who is akin to the God of the Earth, as we all be. Take the ring,
Folk-might, for I trust thee; and of all women now alive would I have
this woman happy.'
So Folk-might took the ring and thrust his hand through it, and took
her hand, and said:
'Ye Fathers, thou God of the Face, thou Earth-god, thou Warrior, bear
witness that my life and my body are plighted to this woman, the
Bride of the House of the Steer!'
His face was flushed and bright as he spoke, but as his words ceased
he noted how feebly her hand lay in his, and his face fell, and he
gazed on her timidly.
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