would not help. It is wasting your grief--" She stopped, for
her mistress was looking at her fixedly.

"I do not understand you," Helga said, slowly. "Is it wasting grief to
mourn the death of Alwin of England, than whom God never made a nobler
or higher-minded man?" She rose out of her seat, and Editha shrank away
from her. "I do not understand you,--you who pretend to have loved him
since he was a child. Is it indeed your wish that I should act as though
I cared nothing for him? Did you really care nothing for him yourself?
Your face has grown no paler since his death-day; you are as fat as
ever; you have seldom shed a tear. Was all your loyalty to him a lie? By
the edge of my knife, if I thought so I would give you cause to weep! I
would drive the blood from your deceitful face forever!"

She caught the Saxon girl by the wrist and forced her upon her knees;
her beautiful eyes were as awful as the eyes of a Valkyria in battle.
The bondmaid screamed at the sight of them, and threw up an arm to
shield herself.

"No, no! Listen, and I will tell you the truth! Though they kill me, I
will tell yon. Put down your head,--I dare not say it aloud. Listen!"

Mechanically, Helga bent her head and received into her ear three
whispered words. She loosed her hold upon the other's wrists and stood
staring at her, at first in anger, and then with a sort of dawning pity.

"Poor creature! grief has gotten you out of your wits," she said. "And I
was harsh with you because I thought you did not care!" She put out a
hand to raise her, but Editha caught it in both of hers, fondling it and
clinging to it.

"Sweetest lady, I am not out of my wits. It is the truth, the blessed
truth. Mine own eyes have proved it. Four times has Thorhild sent me on
errands to Egil's house, and each time have I seen--"

"Yet said nothing to me! You have let me suffer!"

"No, no, spare me your reproaches! How was it possible for me to do
otherwise? If you had known, all would have suspected; 'A woman's eyes
cannot hide it when she loves.' Sigurd Haraldsson bound me firmly. I was
told only because it was necessary that I should carry their messages.
It has torn my heart to let you grieve. Only love for him could have
kept me to it. Believe it, and forgive me. Say that you forgive me!"

Helga flung her arms open wide. "Forgive? I forgive everyone in the
whole world--everything!" She threw herself, sobbing, upon Editha's
breast, and they clung together lik