He pointed to something lying in the grass at the side of the log; just a few bits of weather spoiled cardboard which once upon a time had been a big box filled with candy for her. He told her what it was. Her hand shut down tight upon his arm; he could feel a little tremor shake her; then, deeply touched by this little thing, the girl was crying softly. A tear splashed upon his hand, a tear like a pearl.
"And there was something else, Ygerne," he said gently. "Look. The winter has left it and no man has come here to find it."
It was peeping out at him from the little hollow upon the log's uneven surface where he had dropped it, a glint of gold from under the piece of bark which he had put over it and which had not been thrust aside by the winter winds.
"I got it for you at the same time, Ygerne," he told her. "It was to be my first little present to you.…"
Winter snow and spring thaw had done no harm to the gold which could not rust nor to the pearls which could not tarnish.… Silently she bared her throat that he might fasten the pendant necklace for her. His hands trembled and a strange awkwardness came upon him. But in the end it was done.