"William Morris - The Wood Beyond the World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris William)

sake. Hold fast to thy life, my friend, for in warding that, thou wardest me from grief without
remedy. Thou wilt see me ere long; it may be to-morrow, it may be some days hence. But forget
not, that what I may do, that I am doing. Take heed also that thou pay no more heed to me, or
rather less, than if thou wert meeting a maiden of no account in the streets of thine own town. O
my love! barren is this first farewell, as was our first meeting; but surely shall there be another
meeting better than the first, and the last farewell may be long and long yet.”


Therewith she stood up, and he knelt before her a little while without any word, and then arose
and went his ways; but when he had gone a space he turned about, and saw her still standing in
the same place; she stayed a moment when she saw him turn, and then herself turned about.


So he departed through the fair land, and his heart was full with hope and fear as he went.




CHAPTER XI

WALTER HAPPENETH ON THE MISTRESS

It was but a little after noon when Walter left the Maid behind: he steered south by the sun, as the
Maid had bidden him, and went swiftly; for, as a good knight wending to battle, the time seemed
long to him till he should meet the foe.


So an hour before sunset he saw something white and gay gleaming through the boles of the oak-
trees, and presently there was clear before him a most goodly house builded of white marble,



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carved all about with knots and imagery, and the carven folk were all painted of their lively
colours, whether it were their raiment or their flesh, and the housings wherein they stood all done
with gold and fair hues. Gay were the windows of the house; and there was a pillared porch
before the great door, with images betwixt the pillars both of men and beasts: and when Walter
looked up to the roof of the house, he saw that it gleamed and shone; for all the tiles were of
yellow metal, which he deemed to be of very gold.


All this he saw as he went, and tarried not to gaze upon it; for he said, Belike there will be time
for me to look on all this before I die. But he said also, that, though the house was not of the
greatest, it was beyond compare of all houses of the world.


Now he entered it by the porch, and came into a hall many-pillared, and vaulted over, the walls
painted with gold and ultramarine, the floor dark, and spangled with many colours, and the
windows glazed with knots and pictures. Midmost thereof was a fountain of gold, whence the
water ran two ways in gold-lined runnels, spanned twice with little bridges of silver. Long was