and you shall be my ward, as though you were my own brother. Come, sit here,
and I will tell you."

She repulsed him sharply. "No, no, you shall do nothing for me! I am going
back. I ask you to let me go."

"Let you go, to starve under a hedge?"

"I shall not starve; Avalcomb is mine."

"What food will that put in your mouth, since Leofwinesson has conquered it
and driven out your servants and set his own in their place?"

Her heart sickened within her. Once more the impulse came to creep away, like
a wounded animal, and fight it out alone. She turned again to the door.

"I will starve, then. Let me go."

Leaning at his ease in the great chair, the young King regarded his ward
thoughtfully. "It is not possible that the son of Frode the Fearless should be
a coward," he said at last; "but you are over-peevish, boy. That you have
never known government is easily seen. Listen now to the truth of the matter.
If you were a maiden, it would be easy for me to-- Are you listening?" He
paused, for the slim figure had suddenly become so statue-like that he
suspected it of plotting another attack upon the door.

The boy answered very low, "Yes, Lord King, I am listening."

Canute went on again: "I say that if you were a maiden,--if you were your
sister, to tell it shortly,--I could easily dispose of you in marriage. Thus