Yet I feared that you would be against my wedding a Danish lady." "It was a natural thought," answered Alfred; "but Thora and Osmund are ours, surely.

Perhaps I should have doubted were your mind set on any other.

But I have no fears for you." Then he pondered a little, and went on: "You say that peace has come.

So it has--for a time; and had we to do only with the force that is in England now, I think it would grow and strengthen.

We cannot drive out the Danes, and there is room in England for both them and us, and in the days to come the difference of race will be forgotten--not in our time, Ranald, but hereafter, as long years go by.