I have never seen her so downcast until yesterday.

It is a sudden thing." There we left the subject, and I thought little more of it until the next morning, which was that of the day before we started.

It had become a custom that I should wait on the king at his first rising, when he had most leisure to talk with me, and this time I found the queen with him in his chamber.

She looked sad and anxious, as I thought.
"Wilfrid," she said to me when the fitting greetings were over, "you are a stranger here, and no thought of policy will come into your mind.

Tell me truly what you think of this; it may be that your word will have some weight with my son." Ethelbert smiled, but it was not quite his usual untroubled smile at all.
"It is not fair to ask Wilfrid," he said; "maybe he puts much faith in these omens." "No, but he is of Wessex," she said.