If I
had a jarl's following now--"
"You are not needed by Hakon so much as by another, Malcolm," she
said. "To him you are one among many, and that is all."
"He has my first fealty," I answered. "He was the first who has
ever claimed it, and he has it, for good or ill."
"There was one who claimed your fealty before ever he saw you," she
said slowly, and smiling at me meaningly. "Will you forget that?"
I could not pretend not to understand what she meant, and I
answered her with the thought which troubled me.
"Lady, I cannot forget it. But now it does not seem possible that
she should care to remember. There is no reason why she should."
"Every reason, Malcolm," she said, as if angry with me. "Do you
think that all the care you had for her before Hakon came is to go
for naught?"
"Bertric and Dalfin are to be remembered in that matter also."
"Of course. But Asa Thor, who was only Malcolm the Jarl after all,
being a fellow countryman, has had the first place."
"You seem to have heard all the story," I said, smiling.
"From the beginning," she answered, "else had I not spoken to you
thus. Now, I will not sit by and see Gerda, whom I love, made
wretched because you are somewhat too thoughtful for her, if I may
put it so.
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