"'Damsel,' she said, 'now I see that thy soul goes with thy body,
and that thou art kind and proud at once. And whatever thou art,
it is no mock to say of thee, that thou art as fair as the fairest;
and I think that this will follow thee, that henceforth no man who
seeth thee once will forget thee ever, or cease to long for thee:
of a surety this is thy weird. Now I see that thou knowest no more
of the world and its ways than one of the hinds that run in these woods.
So if thou wilt, I will sit down by thee and tell thee much that shall
avail thee; and thou in thy turn shalt tell me all the tale concerning
thy dwelling and thy service, and the like.'
"I said, 'I may not, I durst not; I serve a mighty mistress,
and she would slay me if she knew that I had spoken to thee;
and woe's me! I fear that even now she will not fail to know it.
Depart in peace.'
"'Nay,' she said, 'thou needest not tell me, for I have an inkling of her
and her ways: but I will give thee wisdom, and not sell it thee at a price.
Sit down then, fair child, on this flowery grass, and I will sit
beside thee and tell thee of many things worth thine heeding.'
So there we sat awhile, and in good sooth she told me much of the
world which I had not yet seen, of its fairness and its foulness;
of life and death, and desire and disappointment, and despair;
so that when she had done, if I were wiser than erst, I was perchance
little more joyous; and yet I said to myself that come what would I
would be a part of all that.
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