Never had she seemed fairer than as she
stood thus in her white robe, a look of amaze upon her face and in
her grey eyes, that was half real half feigned, and with the sunlight
shifting on her auburn hair that showed beneath her little bonnet. Lily
was no round-checked country maid with few beauties save those of health
and youth, but a tall and shapely lady who had ripened early to her full
grace and sweetness, and so it came about that though we were almost of
an age, yet in her presence I felt always as though I were the younger.
Thus in my love for her was mingled some touch of reverence.
'Oh! it is you, Thomas,' she said, blushing as she spoke. 'I thought you
were not--I mean that I am going home as it grows late. But say, why do
you run so fast, and what has happened to you, Thomas, that your arm is
bloody and you carry a sword in your hand?'
'I have no breath to speak yet,' I answered. 'Come back to the hawthorns
and I will tell you.'
'No, I must be wending homewards. I have been among the trees for more
than an hour, and there is little bloom upon them.'
'I could not come before, Lily. I was kept, and in a strange manner.
Also I saw bloom as I ran.'
'Indeed, I never thought that you would come, Thomas,' she answered,
looking down, 'who have other things to do than to go out maying like a
girl. But I wish to hear your story, if it is short, and I will walk a
little way with you.
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