knowing that his own title gave him a semblance of wealth and of station he had not.
She smiled slighUy, there were both wonder at his honesty, and comprehension of his motives in that smile; the candour and the integrity of his nature were very new to her, and moved her to a wonder almost kindred to reverence.
"You are rich, I think," she said, a little wearily. "You have strength liberty, manhood, independence, honour;—how many have forfeited or never owned those birthrights! You chose very wisely to take a wanderer's freedom rather than the slavery of the world."
Erceldoune shook himself with a restless gesture, as an eagle chained shakes his wings:
"Ich diene nicht Vasallen!"
he muttered in his beard.
She laughed, but her gaze dwelt on him in sympathy with the fiery independence of his nature.
"Never the vassal of a slave? Then never be the slave of a woman!"
He looked at her, and there was something wistful in the look; he wondered if she knew her power over him, and if she made a jest of it; he could not answer her with that badinage, that gay light homage, that subtle flattery, to which she was accustomed;
