"Had it not been for you there would have been nought but trouble for me all the rest of my life." He took Erpwald's hand as he spoke and pressed it, but he would not say more then.

Maybe he could not.

So he turned to me.
"It is all right, Oswald, for Elfrida is herself again, and she saw nothing after she looked into the gulf below her.

I have told her nothing." "Do not tell her anything, Ealdorman," Erpwald said.

"No need to say what a near thing it was, or that I handled her like a sack of oats.