His wife had
no place for her, but would that she was well cared for. So she
came with the first chapman who travelled this way."
Now as I thought of this girl, in a moment it flashed across me
where I had seen her before. It was on board the ship at Tenby, and
she came with Dunwal and his daughter Mara. I was certain of it,
though I had only seen her that once, for there I was in a strange
land, and so noticed things and people at which I should hardly
have glanced elsewhere. The Danish and British dress over there was
strange to me also.
Then, as soon as I had a chance I asked the ealdorman for a few
moments of private speech, and we went into his own chamber that
opened on the high place of the hall where we had been sitting.
There I told him all the trouble, for surely I needed all help that
I could find, and at the last I said:
"Mara, the daughter of Dunwal, was at guest quarters with Jago."
Then I saw the face of my friend paling slowly under its ruddy tan,
and he rose and walked across the room once or twice, biting his
lip as though in wrath or sore trouble. I could not tell which it
was, but I thought that he was putting some new thought together in
his mind.
"It is plain enough," he said at last, staying his walk at a side
table. "I saw my sick man pick up that horn the girl dropped, and
he looked into it and laughed and drank from it, saying that it was
a pity to waste good stuff.
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