on with the face of a mischievous boy.

"How joyfully you will take my answer! I have sent to Northampton for
them. And I have bidden Elfgiva accompany them, with all her following
of maids and lap-dogs and beardless boys. Before the end of the week, I
expect that the Abbey guest-house will have the appearance of a woman's
bower; and the monks will have taken to the woods."

As his foster-brother stood gazing at him in speechless dismay, he
laughed maliciously. "Where are your manners, partner, that you do
not praise my foresight? Here am I eager to go to her to celebrate my
victory; and yet because I think it unadvisable for me to leave the
camp, I remain like a rock at my post. Where is your praise?"

"King," Rothgar said gravely, "is the truce going to last long enough to
make it worth while to fetch those trinkets here?"

His laughter vanishing, the King came to earth in both senses of the
phrase. "Now I do not know what you mean by that," he said. "You were
with me on the island. You heard what was said. You heard that we made
peace together to last the whole of our lives, in truth, longer; since
he who outlives is to inherit peacefully after him who dies. Did you not
hear that?"

Rothgar kicked a stone out of his way with impatient emphasis. "Oh, yes,
I heard it. I heard also how you said that you would rather have the
Englishman's friendship than his kingdom."

The eyebrows Canute had drawn down into a frown rose ironically. "There
is room in your breast for more sense, Rothgar, my brother, if you
think, because I am forced into one lie, that I never speak the truth,"
he said. "We will not talk of it further. I should like to remain
good-humored to-night, if it were possible. What are the words you have
waiting for my ears?"

The Jotun's sudden frown quite eclipsed his eyes. "It is not likely
that I shall remain good-humored if I put my tongue to them. Oh! Now
it becomes clear in my mind what you have sent your black-haired falcon
down the wind after,--to carry your order to Northampton?" "Certainly
it is," Canute assented. "When the boy found that I had need of a
messenger, he begged it of me as a boon that he might be the one to
carry the good news to my lady. I thought it a well-mannered way to
show his thankfulness. But why is your voice so bitter when you speak of
him?"

"Because I have just found out that he is a fox," Rothgar bellowed.
"Because it has been borne in upon me that he has played me a