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And whether he did not see her bridling displeasure, or whether he saw and no longer cared to appease it, the result was the same. Randalin spoke abruptly to her companion. "Dearwyn, I can tell you something. Elfgiva will never get the queenship over England." "What moves you to say that?" the little English girl asked her, startled.
Now Thorkel was setting them above the Danish circlet on Canute's shining locks, while the shouts merged into a roar of acclamation. Like blowing flowers, the women bent before him, and the naked swords of his nobles made a glittering arch above him. "But why does he look so strange?" Randalin said suddenly. And Dearwyn laid a finger on her lip. "Hush! At last he is going to speak."
Then the water lost both the reflection and the face above it as a sweet voice sounded up the bank, calling, "Randalin! Randalin!" Picking up the branchful of scarlet berries which she had dropped, Frode's daughter moved toward the voice. "Are they about to go, Dearwyn?" she asked the little gentlewoman who came toward her around a hawthorn bush, lifting her silken skirts daintily.
With timid friendliness in her pretty face, Dearwyn waited, and the Danish girl gave her a shy smile when at last they stood side by side; but their acquaintanceship did not appear to have reached the point of conversation, for they walked back in silence to the spot where the Lady Elfgiva's train had halted on its journey for a noonday meal and rest.
She stands in need of a taste of Teboen's rod to teach her promptness." Little Dearwyn, watching the doorway with fluttering color, cried out eagerly, "Here she is, lady!" There she was, in truth, standing on the threshold with crimson cheeks and flashing eyes.
"It seems that the world has begun to fall to pieces everywhere," Randalin said wearily. The momentary forgetfulness which the happenings around her had created was beginning to give way before the weight in her breast. She drew herself up listlessly. "Is it of any use to remain up here, Dearwyn?" But Dearwyn's grasp had tightened. "See! the King is beginning to speak."
Then will we make ready without delay! Leonorine, come hither and finish clothing me, Dearwyn would shake too much. Lay aside your whimpering, child; the scourging is forgiven you. Tata, I could find it in my mind to scold you for not thinking of this before. You must mouth the order for the horses, though," she added as an afterthought.
"I swear it," he said gravely, but his lips curled a little as he watched her delight bring back her color, her smiles, her every fairy charm. Throwing her arms about Dearwyn, who chanced to be nearest, she kissed her repeatedly. "Think, mouse, a queen! a queen! It was not for naught that I dreamed an eagle flew over my head. Ah, how I shall cherish the dear little one who has brought me this!"
To escape its ensnaring folds, Randalin stole back to the distant window beneath which Dearwyn sat on a little bench, weaving clover blossoms into a chain. The little gentlewoman looked up with her soft pretty smile. "How mysterious you are, you two!" she whispered, as she swept the mass of rosy bloom to the floor to make room for her friend.
According to that her expectations should have mounted high, as she drew aside the door curtain, for the Lady of Northampton was far from sulking. Partially disrobed, as she had sprung up from before her mirror, she was holding the luckless Dearwyn with one hand while with the other she administered pitiless punishment from a long club-like candle which she had snatched from its holder.