one. "Keep it," he said, "for
you have befriended me for a week, and I have given you only the
strength of my arms."

"Let it be so," said the Lad gently, and put the diamond in his belt.
"I must not keep my Great-Aunt waiting. There's a cake in the larder."

So saying he went his way, and the King went his; which, as you may
surmise, was to the bath and his clean clothes. He did not go into the
larder, and an hour before sunset made the ascent of the hill, and for
the third time stood like a conqueror upon the crest. And as he gazed
over the lands below his heart throbbed with a passion for the earth
that was half agony and half love, unless indeed it was the whole agony
of love.

"Most beautiful earth!" he cried aloud, "only as you recede from me do
I realize how necessary it is for me to possess you. How is it that
when I possess you I know you not as I know you now? But oh! if you are
so wonderful from these great hills, what must you be from the greater
hills of air?" And he looked up, and saw the sun descending in the
west. "Sweet earth," he sighed, "you would hold me when I should be
gone, and never remind me that the moment to depart is due." And he
stretched out his arms to her, sealed up his lips, and went into the
Ring.

Once more he knelt between the giant beeches, and sank all thoughts in
pious contemplation; till suddenly those still waters were convulsed as
though with stormy currents, and a wild song beat through his breast,
so that he could not believe it was the bird singing from a short
distance: it was as though the storm of music broke from his singing
heart--yes, from his own heart singing for some unexpressed
fulfillment. He was barely conscious of going through the trees, with
eyes shut tight against the outer world, but soon he was kneeling at
the brink of the Pond, while the surge of joy and pain in the song
broke on his spirit like waves upon a shore, or love upon a man and a
woman--washed back, towered up, and broke on him again. At last on one
full glorious phrase it ceased. And at that instant, deep in the Pond,
he saw the full orb of the moon, and dipped his head.

Oh, when he lifted it, startled and illuminated, he saw on the further
side of the Pond a woman standing. The moonlight bathed her form from
head to foot, her hair was thrown behind her, and she stood facing him,
so that in the cold clear light he could see her fully revealed: her
strong tender face, her strong soft body,