'
She said: 'It was sooth what I told thee, that whiles he groweth so
battle-eager that whatso edge-tool he beareth must needs come out of
the scabbard; but there was more in it than that, which I could not
tell thee erst. Two days before thy coming he had been down to
Burgstead in the guise of an old carle such as thou sawest him with
me in the market-place. There was he guested in your Hall, and once
more saw thee and the Bride together; and he saw the eyes of love
wherewith she looked on thee (for so much he told me), and deemed
that thou didst take her love but lightly. And he himself looked on
her with such love (and this he told me not) that he deemed nought
good enough for her, and would have had thee give thyself up wholly
to her; for my brother is a generous man, my friend. So when I told
him on the morn of that day whereon we met that we looked to see thee
that eve (for indeed I am somewhat foreseeing), he said: "Look thou,
Sun-beam, if he cometh, it is not unlike that I shall drive a spear
through him." "Wherefore?" said I; "can he serve our turn when he is
dead?" Said he: "I care little.
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