“And taunting speech from them I fain would shun,
Hereafter flung at this that I have done.
Proud-hearted are our people; and of them
Meeting us, thus might say some baser one:
“’And who is this, the stranger tall and gay
That here beside Nausicaa takes his way?
And where may she have found him? Aye, no doubt
She brings a husband back with her to-day!...’
“So will they say; and to my shame would be
That word, as I myself would think it shame,