ot a thing that we shall be asked to do every day in the
week, and there is no woman in the world but would love to rule it in
Tara.

No second tear crept on the lady's lashes, and, with her hand in the
king's hand, they paced together towards the palace, while behind them,
in melancholy mood, Crimthann mac Ae led the horses and the chariot.

CHAPTER II

They were married in a haste which equalled the king's desire; and as he
did not again ask her name, and as she did not volunteer to give it, and
as she brought no dowry to her husband and received none from him, she
was called Becfola, the Dowerless.

Time passed, and the king's happiness was as great as his expectation
of it had promised. But on the part of Becfola no similar tidings can be
given.

There are those whose happiness lies in ambition and station, and to
such a one the fact of being queen to the High King of Ireland is a
satisfaction at which desire is sated. But the mind of Becfola was not
of this temperate quality, and, lacking Crimthann, it seemed to her that
she possessed nothing.

For to her mind he was the sunlight in the sun, the brightness in the
moonbeam; he was the savour in fruit and the taste in honey; and when
she looked from Crimthann to the king she could not but consider that
the right man was in the wrong place. She thought that crowned only with
his curls Crlmthann mac Ae was more nobly diademed than are the masters
of the world, and she told him so.

His terror on hearing this unexpected news was so great that he
meditated immediate flight from Tara; but when a thing has been uttered
once it is easier said the second time and on the third repetition it is
patiently listened to.

After no great delay Crimthann mac Ae agreed and arranged that he and
Becfola should fly from Tara, and it was part of their understanding
that they should live happily ever after.

One morning, when not even a bird was astir, the king felt that his dear
companion was rising. He looked with one eye at the light that stole
greyly through the window, and recognised that it could not in justice
be called light.

"There is not even a bird up," he murmured.

And then to Becfola.

"What is the early rising for, dear heart?"

"An engagement I have," she replied.

"This is not a time for engagements," said the calm monarch.

"Let it be so," she replied, and she dressed rapidly.

"And what is the engagement?" he pursued.

"Raiment that I left at