第31章 THE WOOING OF BECFOLA(4)

"Why would you not speak to me or look at me?""Until I have won the kingship of this land from all claimants,Iam no match for the mate of the High King of Ireland,"he replied.

And that reply was like balm to the heart of Becfola.

"What shall I do?"she inquired radiantly."Return to your home,"he counselled."I will escort you there with your maid,for she is not really dead,and when I have won my lordship I will go seek you in Tara.""You will surely come,"she insisted.

"By my hand,"quoth he,"I will come."

These three returned then,and at the end of a day and night they saw far off the mighty roofs of Tara massed in the morning haze.

The young man left them,and with many a backward look and with dragging,reluctant feet,Becfola crossed the threshold of the palace,wondering what she should say to Dermod and how she could account for an absence of three days'duration.

CHAPTER IV

IT was so early that not even a bird was yet awake,and the dull grey light that came from the atmosphere enlarged and made indistinct all that one looked at,and swathed all things in a cold and livid gloom.

As she trod cautiously through dim corridors Becfola was glad that,saving the guards,no creature was astir,and that for some time yet she need account to no person for her movements.She was glad also of a respite which would enable her to settle into her home and draw about her the composure which women feel when they are surrounded by the walls of their houses,and can see about them the possessions which,by the fact of ownership,have become almost a part of their personality.Sundered from her belongings,no woman is tranquil,her heart is not truly at ease,however her mind may function,so that under the broad sky or in the house of another she is not the competent,precise individual which she becomes when she sees again her household in order and her domestic requirements at her hand.

Becfola pushed the door of the king's sleeping chamber and entered noiselessly.Then she sat quietly in a seat gazing on the recumbent monarch,and prepared to consider how she should advance to him when he awakened,and with what information she might stay his inquiries or reproaches.

"I will reproach him,"she thought."I will call him a bad husband and astonish him,and he will forget everything but his own alarm and indignation."But at that moment the king lifted his head from the pillow and looked kindly at her.Her heart gave a great throb,and she prepared to speak at once and in great volume before he could formulate any question.But the king spoke first,and what he said so astonished her that the explanation and reproach with which her tongue was thrilling fled from it at a stroke,and she could only sit staring and bewildered and tongue-tied.

"Well,my dear heart,"said the king,"have you decided not to keep that engagement?""I--I--!"Becfola stammered.

"It is truly not an hour for engagements,"Dermod insisted,"for not a bird of the birds has left his tree;and,"he continued maliciously,"the light is such that you could not see an engagement even if you met one.""I,"Becfola gasped."I--!"

"A Sunday journey,"he went on,"is a notorious bad journey.No good can come from it.You can get your smocks and diadems to-morrow.But at this hour a wise person leaves engagements to the bats and the staring owls and the round-eyed creatures that prowl and sniff in the dark.Come back to the warm bed,sweet woman,and set on your journey in the morning."Such a load of apprehension was lifted from Becfola's heart that she instantly did as she had been commanded,and such a bewilderment had yet possession of her faculties that she could not think or utter a word on any subject.

Yet the thought did come into her head as she stretched in the warm gloom that Crimthann the son of Ae must be now attending her at Cluain da chaillech,and she thought of that young man as of something wonderful and very ridiculous,and the fact that he was waiting for her troubled her no more than if a sheep had been waiting for her or a roadside bush.

She fell asleep.

CHAPTER V

In the morning as they sat at breakfast four clerics were announced,and when they entered the king looked on them with stern disapproval.

"What is the meaning of this journey on Sunday?"he demanded.

A lank-jawed,thin-browed brother,with uneasy,intertwining fingers,and a deep-set,venomous eye,was the spokesman of those four.