Then indeed he bounded toward her, and
caught her by the hands, and then by the shoulders, and drew her to
him, and she nothing loth; and in that while he said to her:
'Come then, my friend; lo thou! they go each their own way toward the
halls of their houses; and for thee have I chosen a way--a way over
the foot-bridge yonder, and over the dewy meadows on this best even
of the year.'
'Nay, nay,' she said, 'it may not be. Surely the Burgstead grooms
look to thee to lead them to the gate; and surely in the House of the
Face they look to see thee before any other. Nay, Gold-mane, my
dear, we must needs go by the Portway.'
He said: 'We shall be home but a very little while after the first,
for the way I tell of is as short as the Portway. But hearken, my
sweet! When we are in the meadows we shall sit down for a minute on
a bank under the chestnut trees, and thence watch the moon coming up
over the southern cliffs. And I shall behold thee in the summer
night, and deem that I see all thy beauty; which yet shall make me
dumb with wonder when I see it indeed in the house amongst the
candles.'
'O nay,' she said, 'by the Portway shall we go; the torch-bearers
shall be abiding thee at the gate.
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