and said:
"Now shall the Queen array herself, and seem like a very goddess."

Then she fell to work, while Walter looked on; and she made a garland for
her head of eglantine where the roses were the fairest; and with mingled
flowers of the summer she wreathed her middle about, and let the garland
of them hang down to below her knees; and knots of the flowers she made
fast to the skirts of her coat, and did them for arm-rings about her
arms, and for anklets and sandals for her feet. Then she set a garland
about Walter's head, and then stood a little off from him and set her
feet together, and lifted up her arms, and said: "Lo now! am I not as
like to the Mother of Summer as if I were clad in silk and gold? and even
so shall I be deemed by the folk of the Bear. Come now, thou shalt see
how all shall be well."

She laughed joyously; but he might scarce laugh for pity of his love.
Then they set forth again, and began to climb the hills, and the hours
wore as they went in sweet converse; till at last Walter looked on the
Maid, and smiled on her, and said: "One thing I would say to thee, lovely
friend, to wit: wert thou clad in silk and gold, thy stately raiment
might well suffer a few stains, or here and there a rent maybe; but
stately would it be still when the folk of the Bear should come up
against thee. But as to this flowery array of thine, in a few hours it
shall be all faded and nought. Nay, even now, as I look on thee, the
meadow-sweet that hangeth from thy girdle-stead has waxen dull, and
welted; and the blossoming eyebright that is for a hem to the little
white coat of thee is already forgetting how to be bright and blue. What
sayest thou then?"

She laughed at his word, and stood still, and looked back over her
shoulder, while with her fingers she dealt with the flowers about her
side like to a bird preening his feathers. Then she said: "Is it verily
so as thou sayest? Look again!"

So he looked, and wondered; for lo! beneath his eyes the spires of the
meadow-sweet grew crisp and clear again, the eyebright blossoms shone
once more over the whiteness of her legs; the eglantine roses opened, and
all was as fresh and bright as if it were still growing on its own roots.

He wondered, and was even somedeal aghast; but she said: "Dear friend, be
not troubled! did I not tell thee that I am wise in hidden lore? But in
my wisdom shall be no longer any scathe to any man. And again, this my
wisdom, as I told t