ne, handsome presence, albeit she was
not the peerless beauty she had been reported; but when he had seen her
often and more closely and had conversed with her he had been
disappointed. There was something lacking; she had not the softness, the
charm, desirable in a woman; she had something of her parent's
harshness, and his final judgment was that she was not a suitable person
for the king to marry.

Edgar was a little cast down at first, but quickly recovering his genial
manner, thanked his friend for having served him so well.

For several weeks following the king and the king's favourite were
constantly together; and during that period Athelwold developed a
peculiar sweetness and affection towards Edgar, often recalling to him
their happy boyhood's days in East Anglia, when they were like brothers,
and cemented the close friendship which was to last them for the whole
of their lives. Finally, when it seemed to his watchful, crafty mind
that Edgar had cast the whole subject of his wish to marry Elfrida into
oblivion, and that the time was now ripe for carrying out his own
scheme, he reopened the subject, and said that although the lady was not
a suitable person to be the king's wife it would be good policy on his,
Athelwold's, part, to win her on account of her position as only
daughter and part heiress of Ongar, who had great power and possessions
in the West. But he would not move in the matter without Edgar's
consent.

Edgar, ever ready to do anything to please his friend, freely gave it,
and only asked him to give an assurance that the secret object of his
former visit to Devon would remain inviolate. Accordingly Athelwold took
a solemn oath that it would never be revealed, and Edgar then slapped
him on the back and wished him Godspeed in his wooing.

Very soon after thus smoothing the way, Athelwold returned to Devon, and
was once more in the presence of the woman who had so enchanted him,
with that same meaning smile on her lips and light in her eyes which had
been her good-bye and her greeting, only now it said to him: You have
returned as I knew you would, and I am ready to give myself to you.

From every point of view it was a suitable union, seeing that Athelwold
would inherit power and great possessions from his father, Earldoman of
East Anglia, and before long the marriage took place, and by and by
Athelwold took his wife to Wessex, to the castle he had built for
himself on his estate of Wherwell, on