“Will you not leave some good word after you?—some word to help?”
Guest the One-eyed looked at her. Then he said:
“Let your heart be open to Love and closed to Hatred; and let your lips be quick to bless, but slow to curse.”
“God be with you,” said the woman, her voice quivering on the verge of tears. “God’s blessing go with you where you may go.”
And, turning hurriedly to hide her shame and emotion, she re-entered the house.
Guest the One-eyed limped painfully along beside the stream. Suddenly he remembered the girl, whom he had forgotten in the trouble of his soul, and turned to seek her. But at that moment she came running towards him.
The girl stopped, breathless, and looked at him reproachfully. “Would you have gone without a word to me?” she asked.
“I had just remembered,” he said softly. “But for a moment my soul was not my own.”
She took his sack and put her arm in his.
“I will go with you as far as I may,” she said.