"I marvel that you needed to learn that," Thord said gruffly.
"So do I, friend," answered Neot; "but one is apt to go too far in a matter which one has at heart, sometimes before one is aware. Then is a word in season welcome."
Then he thanked Harek for his songs, and went, the Saxons bowing as he passed down the long table with Odda.
"That is a wise man and a holy," said Thord.
"Ay, truly," answered the thane who had told me about him. "I mind when he and Alfred the king were the haughtiest and most overbearing of princes. But when Neot found out that his pride and wrath and strength were getting the mastery in his heart, he thrust himself down there to overcome them. So he grows more saintlike every day, and has wrought a wondrous change in the king himself. He is the only man to who
