Hearken, for this concerneth thee:
he made a tale of me of true and false mingled, that I was
a wise-wife and an enchantress, and my lord trowed in him,
so that I was put to shame before all the house, and driven
forth wrung with anguish, barefoot and bleeding."
He looked and saw pain and grief in her face, as it had been
the shadow of that past time, and the fierceness of love in him
so changed his face, that she arose and drew a little way from him,
and stood there gazing at him. But he also rose and knelt before her,
and reached up for her hands and took them in his and said:
"Tell me truly, and beguile me not; for I am a young man,
and without guile, and I love thee, and would have thee
for my speech-friend, what woman soever may be in the world.
Whatever thou hast been, what art thou now? Art thou good or evil?
Wilt thou bless me or ban me? For it is the truth that I
have heard tales and tales of thee: many were good, though it
maybe strange; but some, they seemed to warn me of evil in thee.
O look at me, and see if I love thee or not! and I may not help it.
Say once for all, shall that be for my ruin or my bliss?
If thou hast been evil, then be good this one time and tell me."
She neither reddened now, nor paled at his words, but her eyes
filled with tears, and ran over, and she looked down on him
as a woman looks on a man that she loves from the heart's root,
and she said: "O my lord and love, may it be that thou shalt
find me no worse to thee than the best of all those tales.
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