The Wood Beyond the World

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XVII: OF THE HOUSE AND THE PLEASANCE IN THE WOOD

  On the morrow morning Walter loitered a while about the house till themorn was grown old, and then about noon he took his bow and arrows andwent into the woods to the northward, to get him some venison. He wentsomewhat far ere he shot him a fawn, and then he sat him down to restunder the shade of a great chestnut-tree, for it was not far past thehottest of the day. He looked around thence and saw below him a littledale with a pleasant stream running through it, and he bethought him ofbathing therein, so he went down and had his pleasure of the water andthe willowy banks; for he lay naked a while on the grass by the lip ofthe water, for joy of the flickering shade, and the little breeze thatran over the down-long ripples of the stream.

  Then he did on his raiment, and began to come his ways up the bent, buthad scarce gone three steps ere he saw a woman coming towards him fromdownstream. His heart came into his mouth when he saw her, for shestooped and reached down her arm, as if she would lay her hand on herankle, so that at first he deemed it had been the Maid, but at the secondeye-shot he saw that it was the Mistress. She stood still and looked onhim, so that he deemed she would have him come to her. So he went tomeet her, and grew somewhat shamefaced as he drew nigher, and wondered ather, for now was she clad but in one garment of some dark grey silkystuff, embroidered with, as it were, a garland of flowers about themiddle, but which was so thin that, as the wind drifted it from side andlimb, it hid her no more, but for the said garland, than if water wererunning over her: her face was full of smiling joy and content as shespake to him in a kind, caressing voice, and said: "I give thee good day,good Squire, and well art thou met." And she held out her hand to him.He knelt down before her and kissed it, and abode still upon his knees,and hanging down his head.

  But she laughed outright, and stooped down to him, and put her hand tohis arms, and raised him up, and said to him: "What is this, my Squire,that thou kneelest to me as to an idol?"

  He said faltering: "I wot not; but perchance thou art an idol; and I fearthee."

  "What!" she said, "more than yesterday, whenas thou sawest me afraid?"

  Said he: "Yea, for that now I see thee unhidden, and meseemeth there hathbeen none such since the old days of the Gentiles."

  She said: "Hast thou not yet bethought thee of a gift to crave of me, areward for the slaying of mine enemy, and the saving of me from death?"

  "O my Lady," he said, "even so much would I have done for any other lady,or, forsooth, for any poor man; for so my manhood would have bidden me.Speak not of gifts to me then. Moreover" (and he reddened therewith, andhis voice faltered), "didst thou not give me my sweet reward yesterday?What more durst I ask?"

  She held her peace awhile, and looked on him keenly; and he reddenedunder her gaze. Then wrath came into her face, and she reddened and knither brows, and spake to him in a voice of anger, and said: "Nay, what isthis? It is growing in my mind that thou deemest the gift of meunworthy! Thou, an alien, an outcast; one endowed with the little wisdomof the World without the Wood! And here I stand before thee, allglorious in my nakedness, and so fulfilled of wisdom, that I can makethis wilderness to any whom I love more full of joy than the kingdoms andcities of the world--and thou!--Ah, but it is the Enemy that hath donethis, and made the guileless guileful! Yet will I have the upper hand atleast, though thou suffer for it, and I suffer for thee."

  Walter stood before her with hanging head, and he put forth his hands asif praying off her anger, and pondered what answer he should make; fornow he feared for himself and the Maid; so at last he looked up to her,and said boldly: "Nay, Lady, I know what thy words mean, whereas Iremember thy first welcome of me. I wot, forsooth, that thou wouldstcall me base-born, and of no account, and unworthy to touch the hem ofthy raiment; and that I have been over-bold, and guilty towards thee; anddoubtless this is sooth, and I have deserved thine anger: but I will notask thee to pardon me, for I have done but what I must needs."

  She looked on him calmly now, and without any wrath, but rather as if shewould read what was written in his inmost heart. Then her face changedinto joyousness again, and she smote her palms together, and cried out:"This is but foolish talk; for yesterday did I see thy valiancy, and to-day I have seen thy goodliness; and I say, that though thou mightest notbe good enough for a fool woman of the earthly baronage, yet art thougood enough for me, the wise and the mighty, and the lovely. And whereasthou sayest that I gave thee but disdain when first thou camest to us,grudge not against me therefor, because it was done but to prove thee;and now thou art proven."

  Then again he knelt down before her, and embraced her knees, and againshe raised him up, and let her arm hang down over his shoulder, and hercheek brush his cheek; and she kissed his mouth and said: "Hereby is allforgiven, both thine offence and mine; and now cometh joy and merrydays."

  Therewith her smiling face grew grave, and she stood before him lookingstately and gracious and kind at once, and she took his hand and said:"Thou mightest deem my chamber in the Golden House of the Woodover-queenly, since thou art no masterful man. So now hast thou chosenwell the place wherein to meet me to-day, for hard by on the other sideof the stream is a bower of pleasance, which, forsooth, not every one whocometh to this land may find; there shall I be to thee as one of the up-country damsels of thine own land, and thou shalt not be abashed."

  She sidled up to him as she spoke, and would he, would he not, her sweetvoice tickled his very soul with pleasure, and she looked aside on himhappy and well-content.

  So they crossed the stream by the shallow below the pool wherein Walterhad bathed, and within a little they came upon a tall fence offlake-hurdles, and a simple gate therein. The Lady opened the same, andthey entered thereby into a close all planted as a most fair garden, withhedges of rose and woodbine, and with linden-trees a-blossom, and longways of green grass betwixt borders of lilies and clove-gilliflowers, andother sweet garland-flowers. And a branch of the stream which they hadcrossed erewhile wandered through that garden; and in the midst was alittle house built of post and pan, and thatched with yellow straw, as ifit were new done.

  Then Walter looked this way and that, and wondered at first, and tried tothink in his mind what should come next, and how matters would go withhim; but his thought would not dwell steady on any other matter than thebeauty of the Lady amidst the beauty of the garden; and withal she wasnow grown so sweet and kind, and even somewhat timid and shy with him,that scarce did he know whose hand he held, or whose fragrant bosom andsleek side went so close to him.

  So they wandered here and there through the waning of the day, and whenthey entered at last into the cool dusk house, then they loved and playedtogether, as if they were a pair of lovers guileless, with no fear forthe morrow, and no seeds of enmity and death sown betwixt them.