He took her face between his hands and kissed her over
and over; then he let her go, and said: "I have no fear:
go on with thy tale, for the words thereof are as thy kisses
to me, and the embracing of thine hands and thy body:
tell on, I pray thee." She took his hand in hers and spake,
telling her tale as before.
"Friend, well-beloved for ever! This fair young knight looked on me,
and as he looked, his face flushed as red as mine did even now.
And I tell thee that my heart danced with joy as I looked on him,
and he spake not for a little while, and then he said:
'Fair maiden, canst thou tell me of any who will tell me a word
of the way to the Well at the World's End?' I said to him,
'Nay, I have heard the word once and no more, I know not the way:
and I am sorry that I cannot do for thee that which thou wouldest.'
And then I spake again, and told him that he should by no means stop
at our house, and I told him what it was like, so that he might
give it the go by. I said, 'Even if thou hast to turn back again,
and fail to find the thing thou seekest, yet I beseech thee ride
not into that trap.'
"He sat still on his saddle a while, staring at me and I at him;
and then he thanked me, but with so bad a grace, that I wondered
of him if he were angry; and then he shook his rein, and rode
off briskly, and I looked after him a while, and then went on my way;
but I had gone but a short while, when I heard horse-hoofs behind me,
and I turned and looked, and lo! it was the knight coming back again.
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