These friends of mine over-persuaded me, saying that I should need
it. Now I am in your care, and I have not so much as to hire a ship
to take me home. It was Thorwald's. What if you had come back and
asked him to help you? Would it not have been laid at your feet for
the sake of the old land and the old friendship?"
He smiled, but did not answer. So she set the gift before him once
more, with eager words. I knew, as I listened, that she would be
the happier if the wealth once dedicated, so to speak, to so high
an end as that gift to the old hero were taken from her charge, and
used to the freeing of the land she loved; and at last Hakon saw
that there was some deeper feeling about it than gratitude to
himself only.
"Well," he said, "it seems that I must not refuse. Only, I will put
it in this way--I am to know that you hold it for me in case I need
it. Be sure that if it is needed I will make haste to ask."
"Aye, and you will need it," said Earl Osric bluntly.
Then Gerda said: "Take it now, and use it if and when you need it.
Let it be so, I pray you, King Hakon."
The young king bowed and thanked her, and there that matter ended
for the time. Presently, after the ships had come to anchor with
the last light in the river mouth, and the men had spread the
awnings for us aft, he spoke to us about it, and I told him what I
thought.
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