bunch.
The sweet voice too was subtly tremulous.

"It is because you are to a greater degree anxious to please him than
me, though it is a whole year that I have pined away, day and night, in
the utmost loneliness. Wel-a-way! What! Why have you troubled to send
for me, if you hold my happiness so lightly that you will not comply
with me in so small a matter?" Bridling softly, she was turning away,
when the young King threw up his hands in good-humored surrender.

"To this I will quickly reply that my shield does not secure me against
tears! If it is not to your wish we will not speak of it. Give
back, foster-brother, and choose two of the others to be your
drinking-companions. Look up, my fair one, and admit that I am the most
obedient of your thralls. Never, on former days or since, have I so much
as kicked one of your little yelping dogs, though I hate them as Stark
Otter hated bells."

Sunshine through the mist, Elfgiva laughed. "Nay, but you have them
drowned when I am not looking," she retorted.

He did not take the trouble to deny it; indeed he laughed as though the
accusation was especially apt. "Have I ever wounded you more deeply than
a trinket would cure?" he demanded.

And behold, she had already forgotten the matter, to catch at the huge
arm-ring which was slipping up and down his sleeve, so loose a fit was
it. "What Grendel's neck did you take it from! If it had but an opening,
I could use it for a belt."

Smiling, the King looked down on his monster bracelet. "That," he said,
"does not altogether do me credit, for it shows the difference in girth
between me and Edmund Ironside. When we set the peace between us, we
exchanged ornaments and weapons. Think if we had followed the custom in
every respect and exchanged garments likewise!"

Elf-fires were in Elfgiva's blue eyes when she raised them to his. "Rule
your words so that no one else hears you say that, bright Lord of the
Danes," she murmured, "lest they think you mean by it that the English
crown would fit you as loosely, and forget that you are a boy who will
grow." The King's mouth sobered.

"Nay, a man, who has got his growth."

Her little hand spurned the ring that the instant before it had
caressed. "Not a man, but a King!" she reminded him, and drew herself up
proudly before him, a queen in beauty, crowned with the sun's gold.

His eyes devoured her; his breath seemed to come faster as he looked.
All at once he caught her hands and cru