But she mistook its meaning.
"Do not be vexed. It is a girl."
"Never mind!" as if it was a calamity over which he was bound to comfort
the mother. "If she is half as beautiful as you look at this moment, what
splintering of lances there will be about her! How jolly, to see the lads
hewing at each other, while our daughter sits in the pavilion, as Queen of
Love!"
Torfrida laughed. "You think of nothing but fighting, bear of the North
Seas."
"Every one to his trade. Well, yes, I am glad that it is a girl."
"I thought you seemed vexed. Why did you cross yourself?"
"Because I thought to myself, how unfit I was to bring up a boy to be such
a knight as--as you would have him; how likely I was, ere all was over, to
make him as great a ruffian as myself."
"Hereward! Hereward!" and she threw her arms round his neck for the tenth
time. "Blessed be you for those words! Those are the fears which never
come true, for they bring down from heaven the grace of God, to guard the
humble and contrite heart from that which it fears."
"Ah, Torfrida, I wish I were as good as you!"
"Now--my joy and my life, my hero and my scald--I have great news for you,
as well as a little baby. News from England."
"You, and a baby over and above, are worth all England to me."
"But listen: Edward the king is dead!"
"Then there is one fool less on earth; and one saint more, I suppose, in
heaven.
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