And she answered, "Nay, but go to the very end; there may be toads; and
when thou art there, halloo to me." So she waited with her hand on the
door.
He called to her, "There is nothing, love. Wait until I return to thee."
But, ere he had ceased speaking, she clapped to the door with all her
might, and did push forward the great iron bolt, so that he was a
prisoner in the cave; I being rooted to the ground with astonishment, as
fast as was ever the oak-tree under which I stood. At first he thought
'twas but one o' her pretty trickeries, and I heard his gay laugh as he
came to the shut door, and he called out, and said, "So, sweetheart, I
am in truth a prisoner o' war; but art thou not an unmerciful general to
confine the captured in so rheumatic a cavern?"
She sat down and leaned her head against the door, but said not a word.
And he spoke again, saying, "Darling, I pray thee waste not what little
time doth yet remain to us."
Still she answered not; and again he spake, and his voice began to be
sorrowful.
"Oh, my wife," he said, "canst thou jest at such a time?"