ellow
to say 'the King's Marshal' as though my lord were Canute's thane," she
was reflecting, "and I shall put an end to it. Whatever others say, one
never needs to tell me that Sebert is not suffering in his service."

With this thought in her mind, she raised the moth-eaten tapestry and
stood looking at him with a face full of generous indignation. Except
for the noble's embroidered belt and gold-hilted sword, his dress now
differed in no way from that of the hundreds and hundreds of
red-cloaked guards who were spread over the country like sparks after
a conflagration. As he turned at the end of the beat he was pacing and
came slowly toward her, she could see that in its gravity his face was
as soldier-like as his clothes. Always she found it so when she came
upon him unawares; and always, when she spoke to him--She held her
breath as his eyes rose to her, and let it go with a little sigh of
happiness as she saw gloom drop from him like a mask at the sight of
her.

"Randalin!" he cried joyously, and made a step toward her, then stopped
to laugh in gay wonder. "Now no poet would call you 'a weaver of peace'
as you stand there, for you look rather like an elf of battle. What is
it, my raven?"

Her lips smiled back at him, but a mist was over her eyes. "It is your
King that I am angry with, lord. He is not worthy that a man like you
should serve him."

Moving toward her again, he held himself a little straighter. "I serve
not the King, dear heart," he said gently, "but the State of England, in
whose service the highest is none too good to bend."

She yielded him her hands but not her point. "That does not change the
fact that it is his overbearingness which makes your path as though you
trod on nettles,--for certainly I know it is so, though you will not say
it!"

Neither would he admit it now, but laughed lightly as he drew her to
him. "Now may he not give me thorns who gives me also the sweetest rose
in his king-dom? I tell you he is the kingliest king ever I had to
deal with, and the chief I would soonest trust England to. Be no Danish
rebel, shield-maiden, or as the King's officer I will mulct your lips
for every word of treason."

She showed no rebellion against his authority, at all events; and
her hands remained in his clasp until of his own accord he opened his
fingers with an exclamation. "Do you wear bracelets for rings, my fair,
or what? _What_!" From the monstrous bauble in his palm, he raised his
e