He is too strong and splendid for a common woman.

If he married one, 'twould be as if a lion had taken to himself for mate a jackal or a sheep.

Ah!" with a long drawn breath--"he would go mad--mad with misery;" and her hands, which lay upon her knee, wrung themselves hard together, though none could see it.
"He should have a goddess, were they not so rare," said Dunstanwolde, gently smiling.

"He should hold a bitter grudge against me, that I, his unworthy kinsman, have been given the only one." "Yes, he should have a goddess," said my lady slowly again; "and there are but women, naught but women." "You have marked him well," said her lord, admiring her wisdom.

"Methinks that you--though you have spoken to him but little, and have but of late become his kinswoman--have marked and read him better than the rest of us." "Yes--I have marked him," was her answer.
"He is a man to mark, and I have a keen eye." She rose up as she spoke, and stood before the fire, lifted by some strong feeling to her fullest height, and towering there, splendid in the shadow--for 'twas by twilight they talked.