So amid their joyance came evening and nightfall; and though folk
were weary with the fulness of delight, yet now for many their
weariness led them to the chamber of love before the rest of deep
night came to them to make them strong for the happy life to be begun
again on the morrow.
House by house they feasted, and few were the lovers that sat not
together that even. But Face-of-god and the Sun-beam parted at the
door of the House of the Face; for needs must she go with her new
folk to the House of the Steer, and needs must Face-of-god be amongst
his own folk in that hour of high-tide, and sit beside his father
beneath the image of the God with the ray-begirt head.
CHAPTER LVIII. HOW THE MAIDEN WARD WAS HELD IN BURGDALE
Now May was well worn when the Host came home to Burgdale; and on the
very morrow of men's home-coming they began to talk eagerly of the
Midsummer Weddings, and how the Maiden Ward would be the greatest and
fairest of all yet seen, whereas battle and the deliverance from
battle stir up the longing and love both of men and maidens; much
also men spake of the wedding of Face-of-god and the Sun-beam; and
needs must their wedding abide to the time of the Maiden Ward at
Midsummer, and needs also must the Sun-beam go on the Ward with the
other Brides of the Folk.
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