CHAPTER VI. OF FACE-OF-GOD AND THOSE MOUNTAIN-DWELLERS.
A yard or two from the threshold Gold-mane hung back a moment, entangled in some such misgiving as a man is wont to feel when he is just about to do some new deed, but is not yet deep in the story; his new friends noted that, for they smiled each in their own way, and the woman drew her hand away from his. Face-of-god held out his still as though to take hers again, and therewithal he changed countenance and said as though he had stayed but to ask that question:
‘Tell me thy name, tall man; and thou, fair woman, tell me thine; for how can we talk together else?’
The man laughed outright and said: ‘The young chieftain thinks that this house also should be his! Nay, young man, I know what is in thy thought, be not ashamed that thou a
