So many a time they met that autumn, and Elfhild would ever be asking
him some boon; as the next time after this, it was the gifts which he
had brought for her from the Cheaping; for in thinking of her he had
clean forgotten them. So then was the merry time in talking of them,
and shooting and hurling of them over, and the donning of them, and
the talking of them again. Another time she prayed him to come clad in
that goodly armour of the spoils of Deepdale, and he could no less
than yeasay her, and there he was on the trysting-day, striding by the
river-bank in the sun, like an heap of glittering ice hurrying before
the river when the thaw is warm and the sun shining bright at
Candlemas. And over that also went many pretty plays, as taking the
pieces off, and naming them, and doing them on again, and the like.
So wore the days into winter, and yet the two saw each other full
often even through the frost and snow and ill weather. And when the
spring came, then it was dear to them indeed. And by that time had
Osberne's fears about the stealing of Elfhild much worn off; though it
is to be said that exceeding oft his heart was weary and sore with the
longing to hold her in his arms. Yet the most of these times he kept
his grief in his own heart; so much as Elfhild was moved when it brake
forth from him, and she might, so to say, see the torments of him
before her very eyes. Indeed on one time, when for a long while she
might not comfort him, she told him that this was almost as bad as
seeing him laid a-dying before her.
But kind and dear they were to each other, and there was nought in
them that was not lovely in those first days of their manhood.