Today I had a little private speech with her, and she would have me put off the wedding.

She more than hinted that I might make a higher match, and that angered me.

Whereon she told me that Offa might not have long to live; that Mercia and East Anglia would be a mighty realm if united.

And, on my word, it seemed to me that she would bid me wait till she was a widow." He laughed uneasily, as if he thought himself foolish; but we knew that unless he had full reason for that belief he would not have told us.

That must have been a strange talk between this honest young king and Quendritha, if he deemed it best to speak to us of it.
Sighard frowned, and said: "If it is true that Offa is thus--well, we are forewarned.
Quendritha has let us see that in one way or the other she would fain have East Anglia.