"He cares naught for alliance or court, or for any of those things which blind our eyes.

I want him to answer me as if I were just a franklin's wife who is in doubt.
"Listen, then, if you will." She turned to me with a sort of appeal, and spoke quietly, though I saw that she was almost weeping.
"Last night I dreamed a dream, and in it I waited in the church here for the bells to ring for the wedding of my son and Etheldrida, whom he loves.

It was in my mind that all the good folk would come in their best array, and that so we should sing a great 'Te Deum' for the happiness of all.

And indeed there was a voice from the belfry--but it was of the great bell alone, as of a knell for the dead.

And indeed it seemed that the people came--but they came softly and weeping, and they were clad all in black.