took her hand, and to hold it seemed to him sweet beyond measure.
But he looked up, and saw a little blue smoke going up into the air from
beyond the thicket; and he laughed, for he was weak with hunger, and he
said: "Who is at the cooking yonder?"

"Thou shalt see," she said; and led him therewith into the said thicket
and through it, and lo! a fair little grassy place, full of flowers,
betwixt the bushes and the bight of the stream; and on the little sandy
ere, just off the greensward, was a fire of sticks, and beside it two
trouts lying, fat and red-flecked.

"Here is the breakfast," said she; "when it was time to wash the night
off me e'en now, I went down the strand here into the rippling shallow,
and saw the bank below it, where the water draws together yonder, and
deepens, that it seemed like to hold fish; and whereas I looked to meet
thee presently, I groped the bank for them, going softly; and lo thou!
Help me now, that we cook them."

So they roasted them on the red embers, and fell to and ate well, both of
them, and drank of the water of the stream out of each other's hollow
hands; and that feast seemed glorious to them, such gladness went with
it.

But when they were done with their meat, Walter said to the Maid: "And
how didst thou know that thou shouldst see me presently?"

She said, looking on him wistfully: "This needed no wizardry. I lay not
so far from thee last night, but that I heard thy voice and knew it."

Said he, "Why didst thou not come to me then, since thou heardest me
bemoaning thee?"

She cast her eyes down, and plucked at the flowers and grass, and said:
"It was dear to hear thee praising me; I knew not before that I was so
sore desired, or that thou hadst taken such note of my body, and found it
so dear."

Then she reddened sorely, and said: "I knew not that aught of me had such
beauty as thou didst bewail."

And she wept for joy. Then she looked on him and smiled, and said: "Wilt
thou have the very truth of it? I went close up to thee, and stood there
hidden by the bushes and the night. And amidst thy bewailing, I knew
that thou wouldst soon fall asleep, and in sooth I out-waked thee."

Then was she silent again; and he spake not, but looked on her shyly; and
she said, reddening yet more: "Furthermore, I must needs tell thee that I
feared to go to thee in the dark night, and my heart so yearning towards
thee."

And she hung her head adown; but he said: "Is it so indeed,