At last she stayed her swift feet, and turned round on Walter, and said: “Squire, come hither.”
So did he, and she said: “I am weary again; let us sit under this quicken-tree, and rest us.”
So they sat down, and she sat looking between her knees a while; and at last she said: “Why didst thou not bring the lion’s hide?”
He said: “Lady, I will go back and flay the beast, and bring on the hide.”
And he arose therewith, but she caught him by the skirts and drew him down, and said: “Nay, thou shalt not go; abide with me. Sit down again.”
He did so, and she said: “Thou shalt not go from me; for I am afraid: I am not used to looking on the face of death.”
She grew pale as she spoke, and set a hand to her breast, and sat so a while without speaking. At last she turned to him smiling, and said: “How was it with the aspect of me when I stood before the peril of the Enemy?” And she laid a hand upon his.
“O gracious one,” quoth he, “thou wert, as ever, full lovely, but I feared for thee.”
She moved not her hand from his, and she said: “Good and true Squire, I said ere I entered the thicket e’en now that I would reward thee if thou slewest the quarry. He is dead, though thou hast left the skin behind upon the carcase. Ask now thy reward, but take time to think what it shall be.”
He felt her hand warm upon his, and drew in the sweet odour of her mingled with the woodland scents under the hot sun of the afternoon, and his heart was clouded with manlike desire of her. And it was a near thing but he had spoken, and craved of her the reward of the freedom of her Maid, and that he might depart with her into other lands; but as his mind wavered betwixt this and that, the Lady, who had been eyeing him keenly, drew her hand away from him; and therewith doubt and fear flowed into his mind, and he refrained him of speech.