A hut stood
in the clear shadow, hard by a brook which made a series of
inconsiderable falls; and on the threshold the Princess saw a sun-
burnt and hard-featured woodman, standing with his hands behind his
back and gazing skyward.
She went to him directly: a beautiful, bright-eyed, and haggard
vision; splendidly arrayed and pitifully tattered; the diamond ear-
drops still glittering in her ears; and with the movement of her
coming, one small breast showing and hiding among the ragged covert
of the laces. At that ambiguous hour, and coming as she did from
the great silence of the forest, the man drew back from the Princess
as from something elfin.
'I am cold,' she said, 'and weary. Let me rest beside your fire.'
The woodman was visibly commoved, but answered nothing.
'I will pay,' she said, and then repented of the words, catching
perhaps a spark of terror from his frightened eyes. But, as usual,
her courage rekindled brighter for the check. She put him from the
door and entered; and he followed her in superstitious wonder.
Within, the hut was rough and dark; but on the stone that served as
hearth, twigs and a few dry branches burned with the brisk sounds
and all the variable beauty of fire. The very sight of it composed
her; she crouched hard by on the earth floor and shivered in the
glow, and looked upon the eating blaze with admiration.
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