"
It was evident that her answer took him by surprise, for he bent from the wall
to observe her. "I choose!" he repeated. "Have you then no choice?"
She tried to say "No"; she tried desperately to say it; but already her
courage was crumbling under her. All at once she took her hands from her
breast to hold them out pleadingly, and her voice was broken: "Lord, let me go
back to Avalcomb--now--to-day!"
"Wherefore to-day?" he asked. "I had thought you would remain here for a while
and get honor from Queen Emma." A moment he looked away from her, out of the
window at the drifting clouds. "I can tell you, Frode's daughter, that while
she is noble in her birth, she is still nobler in her mind," he said gravely.
"Little would there be in her service for you to take ill. I think it possible
that she might be highly helpful to you. There is that about her which makes
the good in one come out and bask like a snake in the sun, while the evil
slinks away shadow-like--"
She interrupted him with a cry that was half a sob. "Lord King, I cannot bear
it to see more people that are strange to me! Since I left my father's house I
have felt the starkness of strangers, and now--now I can endure it no longer.
My heart within me is as though it were bruised black and blue. Let me go back
where all know me,--where none will hold me off at arm's length to challenge
me with his eyes, but all love me and place faith in me because they know me.
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