Therewith he told her all that the Bride had said to him, as he well might, for he had forgotten no word of it. Then said the Friend: ‘She shall have the token that she craveth, and it is I that shall give it to her.’ Therewith she took from her finger a ring wherein was set a very fair changeful mountain-stone, and gave it to him, and said: ‘Thou shalt give her this and tell her whence thou hadst it; and tell her that I bid her remember that To-morrow is a new day.’ CHAPTER XX. THOSE TWO TOGETHER HOLD THE RING OF THE EARTH-GOD. AND now they fell silent both of them, and sat hearkening the sounds of the Dale, from the whistle of the plover down by the water-side to the far-off voices of the children and maidens about the kine in the lower meadows. At last Gold-mane took up the word and said: ‘Sweet friend, tell me the uttermost of what thou would’st have of me. Is it not that I should stand by thee and thine in the Folk-mote of the Dalesmen, and speak for you when ye pray us for help against your foemen; and then again that I do my best when ye and we are arrayed for battle against the Dusky Men? This is easy to do, and great is the reward thou offerest me.’ ‘I look for this service of thee,’ she said, ‘and none other.’ ‘And when I go down to the battle,’ said he, ‘shalt thou be sorry for our sundering?’ She said: ‘There shall be no sundering; I shall wend with thee.’ Said he: ‘And if I were slain in the battle, would’st thou lament me?’ ‘Thou shalt not be slain,’ she said. Again was there silence betwixt them, till at last he said: ‘This then is why thou didst draw me to thee in the Wild-wood?’ ‘Yea,’ said she. Again for a while no word was spoken, and Face-of-god looked on her till she cast her eyes down before him. Then at last he spake, and the colour came and went in his face as he said: ‘Tell me thy name what it is.’ She said: ‘I am called the Sun-beam.’ Then he said, and his voice trembled therewith: ‘O Sun-beam, I have been seeking pleasant and cunning words, and can find none such. But tell me this if thou wilt: dost thou desire me as I desire thee? or is it that thou wilt suffer me to wed thee and bed thee at last as mere payment for the help that I shall give to thee and thine? Nay, doubt it not that I will take the payment, if this is what thou wilt give me and nought else. Yet tell me.’ Her face grew troubled, and she said: