I need one to take the place of Owen, as second in command of the household, as one may say, and that you must do for me henceforward.
"Nay," he said quickly, raising his hand as I tried to find some words of thanks for this honour; "you know the ways of Owen, and men know you, and it will be as if there had been no change, and that will mean that we shall have no grumbling in the palace, and the right men will be sent to do what they are best fitted for--and all that, so that there will be quiet about the court as ever.

It is a matter off my mind, let me tell you, and no thanks are needed." So he laughed and let me kiss his hand, patting me on the shoulder as I rose, and then bade me sit down again.

He had yet more to say.
"With Erpwald who is dead, men would hold that you had a blood feud.

That is done with; but his son yet lives.

I do not think it is your way, or Owen's, to hold that a feud must be carried on in the old heathen way of our forefathers." "Most truly not," I said.