Then Hilda smiled also, and with that made the best of it, and walked with me to and fro under the trees.

The king and the princess were here, she told me, for a little time, and she was in attendance.
Presently she told me also of the goodness of Etheldrida, saying that she thought the king and the land alike happy in this match.
She had much to say of her; and it seemed that the wedding was to be in three days' time, here in the palace chapel.

But presently she spoke of Quendritha, and as she did so her face clouded.
"I am afraid of her," she said at last.

"She is terrible to me, and why I cannot tell.

She is naught but kind to me.