Therefore, I wished you to continue at Steyning.
It will assuredly be pleasant for you to know that you are no longer
to be considered as being there in consequence of having fallen
under the king's displeasure, but simply because it is my wish that
you should for a time dwell among your people, and fit yourself to
be a wise lord to them."
Wulf was much pleased at the receipt of this letter, partly because
the fact that he had been sent away in disgrace stung him, and he
had felt obliged frankly to acknowledge to the neighbouring thanes
that he had been sent down on account of a quarrel with a Norman
page; but chiefly because it showed the kindly interest that Harold
felt in him, and that although absent he had still thought of him.
It was nigh ten months before he heard again. During that time he
had grown a good deal, and although he would never be tall, his
frame had so widened out that it was evident he would grow into an
exceptionally powerful man.
At sixteen he was still a boy, and although his position at Steyning,
where, although still under the nominal tutelage of the earl's
steward, he was practically lord and master, accustomed to play the
part of host within its walls, and that of feudal lord over the
wide estates, had given him the habits of authority and the bearing
of one who respected himself, the merry expression of his face,
aided by a slight upward turn of his nose, showed that in other
respects he was unchanged.
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