Chapter 2
They were married in a haste which equalled the king's desire;
and as he did not again ask her name, and as she did not volunteer
to give it, and as she brought no dowry to her husband and received
none from him, she was called Becfola, the Dowerless.
Time passed, and the king's happiness was as great as his
expectation of it had promised. But on the part of Becfola no
similar tidings can be given.
There are those whose happiness lies in ambition and station,
and to such a one the fact of being queen to the High King of
Ireland is a satisfaction at which desire is sated. But the mind of
Becfola was not of this temperate quality, and, lacking Crimthann,
it seemed to her that she possessed nothing.
For to her mind he was the sunlight in the sun, the brightness
in the
