Who cares?"
"Not I," quoth Hereward.
"Well--he wants to marry her to Dolfin, his eldest son."
"Why, Dolfin had a wife when I was at Dunsinane."
"But she is dead since, and young Ulf, her son, murdered by Tosti last
winter."
"I know."
"Whereon Gospatrick sends to me for the girl and her dowry. What was I to
do? Give her up? Little it is, lad, that I ever gave up, after I had it
once in my grip, or I should be a poorer man than I am now. Have and hold,
is my rule. What should I do? What I did. I was coming hither on business
of my own, so I put her on board ship, and half her dower,--where the
other half is, I know; and man must draw me with wild horses, before he
finds out;--and came here to my kinsman, Baldwin, to see if he had any
proper young fellow to whom we might marry the lass, and so go shares in
her money and the family connection. Could a man do more wisely?"
"Impossible," quoth Hereward.
"But see how a wise man is lost by fortune. When I come here, whom should
I find but Dolfin himself? The dog had scent of my plan, all the way from
Dolfinston there, by Peebles. He hunts me out, the hungry Scotch wolf;
rides for Leith, takes ship, and is here to meet me, having accused me
before Baldwin as a robber and ravisher, and offers to prove his right to
the jade on my body in single combat.
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