One group he
passed--and another--and another--now he was on the threshold. Her pulses
leaped as she recognized Rothgar, in the throng pouring into the garden with
the messenger, but quieted again when she saw that the two passed shoulder to
shoulder without a look, without a thought, for each other. Now he was out of
sight.
She let her suspended breath go from her in a long sigh. "It is good that
everyone is too excited to notice what I do," she said to herself. And even as
she said it she realized that her limbs were shaking under her, that she was
sick unto faintness. "I am going to finish dying now, and I welcome it," she
murmured. Staggering to a little bench under one of the old oaks, she sank
down upon it and leaned her head against the tree trunk and waited.
Chapter XXIII
A Blood-stained Crown
He is happy
Who in himself possesses
Fame and wit while living;
For bad counsels
Have oft been received
From another's breast.
Ha'vama'l.
"Tata!" That was the pet name which Elfgiva had given to her Danish attendant
because it signified lively one." "Tata! I have looked everywhere for you!"
The pat of light feet, a swish of silken skirts, and Dearwyn had thrown
herself upon the bench under the oak tree, her little dimpled face radiant.
"What are you doing here in this corner where you can see nothing? How! Are
you not overcome with delight? Only think that Elfgiva will be a queen and we
shall all go to London!" As the only adequate means of expression, she threw
her arms around her friend in a rapturous embrace.
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