ite in the moonlight.

"Of his kindness he bade me bear him company."

But he made no answer, and half he halted and made as if to speak.
Again he went on, but said naught until we came to the steps which
led down from the rampart to the rear gate. On the top of them he
turned and said in a low voice, staying me with his hand on my arm:

"Say naught to any man of what I said concerning a state need of
the queen's, for mayhap I took too much on myself when I spoke
thereof; there may be no need after all."

I laughed a little, for I did but think that he had been trying to
make out that he held high honour in the counsels of Quendritha,
out of vanity, not knowing what my rank was.

"If she does send for me, I shall remember it, not else," I
answered.

And then, as he had the guard to visit, I left him, and went across
the broad street, from the gate to the hall through the huts, back
to my lodging. There I found Father Selred, and together we waited
for Sighard. Erling sat on the settle by the door, with his weapons
laid handy to him, on guard.

"All seems well, father," I said; "there is naught but friendliness
here."

"Well indeed," he answered. "It is good to hear the talk of priests
and nobles alike; they know the worth of our young king."

"Well, and what is the talk of the housecarls, Erling?" I asked.

"Good also," he growled. "But I would that I kenned the talk of her
of whom I have seen overmuch in the days gone by."

Then he remembered that of this matter Father Selred knew nothing,
and he swore under his breath at his own foolishness; but the good
father had not heard him, or his rough Danish prevented his
understanding.

"What says he of the men?" he asked.

And when I told him he was well content, saying that from high to
low all had a warm welcome for our king.

But even now Offa rises from the table and leaves the hall, all men
rising with him. So he passes out of the door on the high place and
seeks his own chamber, and there to him comes Quendritha.

"I have dreamed a dream, my king," she says, standing before him,
for he has thrown himself into a great chair, wearily. "I have
dreamed that your realm stretched from here on the Wye and the
mountains of the Welsh even to the sea that bounds the lands from
the Wash to the Thames. What shall that portend?"

"A wedding, and a son-in-law whom you may bend to your will,"
answers the king; but his eyes are bright, and there comes a flash
int