Ponder it, and ask thyself if thy power, when I am dead, is not necessary to the weal of England?
and if aught that thy schemes can suggest would so strengthen that power, as to find in the heart of the kingdom a host of friends like the Mercians;--or if there could be a trouble and a bar to thy greatness, a wall in thy path, or a thorn in thy side, like the hate or the jealousy of Algar, the son of Leofric ?" Thus addressed, Harold's face, before serene and calm, grew overcast; and he felt the force of his father's words when appealing to his reason--not to his affections.

The old man saw the advantage he had gained, and prudently forbore to press it.

Rising, he drew round him his sweeping gonna lined with furs, and only when he reached the door, he added: "The old see afar; they stand on the height of experience, as a warder on the crown of a tower; and I tell thee, Harold, that if thou let slip this golden occasion, years hence--long and many--thou wilt rue the loss of the hour.

And that, unless Mercia, as the centre of the kingdom, be reconciled to thy power, thou wilt stand high indeed--but on the shelf of a precipice.

And if, as I suspect, thou lovest some other who now clouds thy perception, and will then check thy ambition, thou wilt break her heart with thy desertion, or gnaw thine own with regret.