st out of it. I have words to say to you."

"Speak on, Wulf," said Godwin.

Wulf sat himself down again upon his stool, and for a while
stared hard at nothing, for he did not seem to find it easy to
begin this talk. Now Godwin could read his brother's mind like a
book, but Wulf could not always read Godwin's, although, being
twins who had been together from birth, their hearts were for the
most part open to each other without the need of words.

"It is of our cousin Rosamund, is it not?" asked Godwin
presently.

"Ay. Who else?"

"And you would tell me that you love her, and that now you are a
knight--almost--and hard on five-and twenty years of age, you
would ask her to become your affianced wife?"

"Yes, Godwin; it came into my heart when she rode the grey horse
into the water, there upon the pier, and I thought that I should
never see her any more. I tell you it came into my heart that
life was not worth living nor death worth dying without her."

"Then, Wulf," answered Godwin slowly, "what more is there to say?
Ask on, and prosper. Why not? We have some lands, if not many,
and Rosamund will not lack for them. Nor do I think that our
uncle would forbid you, if she wills it, seeing that you are the
properest man and the bravest in all this country side."

"Except my brother Godwin, who is all these things, and good and
learned to boot, which I am not," replied Wulf musingly. Then
there was silence for a while, which he broke.

"Godwin, our ill-luck is that you love her also, and that you
thought the same thoughts which I did yonder on the quay-head."

Godwin flushed a little, and his long fingers tightened their
grip upon his knee.

"It is so," he said quietly. "To my grief it is so. But Rosamund
knows nothing of this, and should never know it if you will keep
a watch upon your tongue. Moreover, you need not be jealous of
me, before marriage or after."

"What, then, would you have me do?" asked Wulf hotly. "Seek her
heart, and perchance--though this I doubt--let her yield it to
me, she thinking that you care naught for her?"

"Why not?" asked Godwin again, with a sigh; "it might save her
some pain and you some doubt, and make my own path clearer.
Marriage is more to you than to me, Wulf, who think sometimes
that my sword should be my spouse and duty my only aim."

"Who think, having a heart of gold, that even in such a thing as
this you will not bar the path of the brother whom you love. Nay,
Godwin