t to no person for her movements. She was glad also of
a respite which would enable her to settle into her home and draw about
her the composure which women feel when they are surrounded by the walls
of their houses, and can see about them the possessions which, by the
fact of ownership, have become almost a part of their personality.
Sundered from her belongings, no woman is tranquil, her heart is not
truly at ease, however her mind may function, so that under the broad
sky or in the house of another she is not the competent, precise
individual which she becomes when she sees again her household in order
and her domestic requirements at her hand.

Becfola pushed the door of the king's sleeping chamber and entered
noiselessly. Then she sat quietly in a seat gazing on the recumbent
monarch, and prepared to consider how she should advance to him when
he awakened, and with what information she might stay his inquiries or
reproaches.

"I will reproach him," she thought. "I will call him a bad husband
and astonish him, and he will forget everything but his own alarm and
indignation."

But at that moment the king lifted his head from the pillow and looked
kindly at her. Her heart gave a great throb, and she prepared to speak
at once and in great volume before he could formulate any question.
But the king spoke first, and what he said so astonished her that the
explanation and reproach with which her tongue was thrilling fled
from it at a stroke, and she could only sit staring and bewildered and
tongue-tied.

"Well, my dear heart," said the king, "have you decided not to keep that
engagement?"

"I--I--!" Becfola stammered.

"It is truly not an hour for engagements," Dermod insisted, "for not
a bird of the birds has left his tree; and," he continued maliciously,
"the light is such that you could not see an engagement even if you met
one."

"I," Becfola gasped. "I---!"

"A Sunday journey," he went on, "is a notorious bad journey. No good can
come from it. You can get your smocks and diadems to-morrow. But at this
hour a wise person leaves engagements to the bats and the staring owls
and the round-eyed creatures that prowl and sniff in the dark. Come back
to the warm bed, sweet woman, and set on your journey in the morning."

Such a load of apprehension was lifted from Becfola's heart that she
instantly did as she had been commanded, and such a bewilderment had yet
possession of her faculties that she could not think