"It may be that she accepts my invitation to play chess. Leif spoke with her for a long time this afternoon; it is likely that he roused her from her black mood."
"It is likely that he roused her," Alwin said slowly.
There was something so peculiar in his voice that they all turned and looked at him. He had suddenly grown very red and uncomfortable.
"It seems that anyone can be foreknowing at certain times," he said, trying to smile. "Now my mind tells me that the summons will be for me."
"For you!" Egil's brows became two black thunder-clouds from under which his eyes flashed lightnings at the thrall.
Alwin yielded to helpless laughter. "There is little need for you to get angry. Rather would I be drowned than go."
It was Sigurd's turn to be offended. "I had thought better of you, Alwin of England, than to suppose that you would cherish hatred against a woman who has offered to be your friend."
"Hatred?" For a moment Alwin did not understand him; then he added: "By Saint George, that is so! I had altogether forgotten that it was my intention to hate her! I swear to you, Sigurd, I have not thought of the matter these two weeks."
"Which causes me to suspect that you have been thinking very hard of something else," Rolf suggested.
But Alwin closed his lips and kept his eyes on Editha's approaching figure.