fear
may pass away. And then a great shout rent the hall, and there it was
done. A tall man rose in his place, a grey cloak fell from him, and he
was clad all in glittering armour, and there was none that did not
know him for Osberne Wulfgrimsson, who has been called the Red Lad.
And he said in a bold and free voice: "See, my masters and dear
friends, if I have not kept tryst with you; for it is of a sooth five
years well told since I departed from Wethermel with little hope in my
heart. And now forsooth is no hope in my heart, for all the hope has
budded and blossomed and fruited, and I am yours and ye are mine while
the days last. And this is the woman that I have won; and O I would
that it had been earlier, though God wot I laboured at it. And now I
think ye will be good to her as ye will be good to me, and what tale
shall there be except of peace and quiet in these far-away upland
vales?"

[Unwritten Song]

So passed the hours into deep might at Wethermel, and folk went to
sleep scarce trowing in the wonders that they had heard and seen. And
there were few among them that did not long for the dawn and the
daylight, that they might once again cast eyes upon Osberne and his
beloved. And hard it were to say which of those twain was the
loveliest. But surely about both of them there was then and always a
sweet wisdom that never went beyond what was due and meet for the land
they lived in or the people with whom they dwelt. So that all round
them the folk grew better and not the worser.

Chapter LXVI. The Lip of the Sundering Flood

When it was the morning and the sun shone through the house at
Wethermel, those two arose and took each other by the hand, and no
word they spake together, but went straight to the Sundering Flood,
and there they walked slowly and daintily along the very lip thereof;
and the day was the crown of all midsummer days, and it seemed to
Elfhild that never on the other side had the flowers looked so fair
and beautiful. So they went on till they came to the Bight of the
Cloven Knoll, and there they looked across a while and yet said
nothing. And Elfhild looked curiously toward that cave wherein Osberne
first espied her, and she said: "How would it be if there were another
one there?" He laughed and said: "There is not another one." But she
said: "Dost thou remember that game I played with the shepherd's pipe,
how that the sheep came all bundling towards me?" "Dearly I remember
it,"