"I did think, at least, she would have been more glad to see me."

"Trouble yourself not at all about the ways of damsels for the next
five years, or maybe ten, Oswald, my friend," said the ealdorman.
"So will you have an easier life, and maybe a longer one."

Discontented enough I went away, and that same discontent lasted
for a full half-hour. At the end of that time I found myself
laughing at the antics of two boys who were sporting on a flooded
meadow in a great brew tub, while their mother threatened them with
a stick from the bank. It was my thought that a cake would have
fetched them back sooner than the stick, but maybe she knew best.
It was like a hen with ducklings.

Then I grew tired of loitering outside the town and nursing my
wounded pride, and when it began to rain I forgot it, and went back
to the palace and talked about the British warriors with Nunna and
some of the other young thanes until supper time.

Next morning I waited on the king as he had bidden me, finding him
in his chamber with a pile of great parchments and the like before
him. He bade me be seated, and I sat in the window seat opposite
him.

"It is no light matter that I have to speak of," he said, "but I
will get to the point straightway. What do you remember of your old
home, Eastdean?"

Now the thoughts of old days there that had sprung afresh in my
mind in the parting with Owen, made me ready to answer that at