him when she had him out of range of the others,
"and how should I be quiet? They are all about us. So soon as it
grows dusk they come out of the snow. I hear them quarrelling,
murmuring, and some of them grieve. I shall be with them soon--and
perhaps you will see me there. It has been bad enough other winters,
but none so bad as this. There are strangers here--that's how it is.
We shall never quiet them till we have burned the bodies. That's the
only way."

"They shall be burned, mistress," said Thorstan. "I will see to it."

She looked at him queerly, with one eyebrow arching into her hair.
"You?" she said, then turned away her face. "Well, well--Christ have
mercy on us."

When the fever took her and seemed to stretch her skin to
cracking-point, she would not go to bed, and nobody could persuade her.
She huddled by the fire, rocking herself, until the evening; but
directly it was dusk she was restless. The wind used to moan about the
house, and she heard in it the voices of the dead. She thought she
could distinguish one from the other. "Gurth is railing--hark to
him. . . . That was Wigfus answering, and that deep one is Kettleneb.
Oh, let me rest--have done!" She wandered forth and back, but was
mostly in the kitchen, listening at the door. Thorstan Black grieved
for her and used to try to coax her back to the fire. She scowled at
him as if he were a stranger, and would not let him touch her. Gudrid
was afraid to go near her.

Once when she was out there on a wild moon-lit night, the others by the
fire heard her cry aloud; and then she called on Thorstan. The two
Thorstans looked at each other. Thorstan Black said, "It's you she
wants. Go and talk to her." Thorstan Red went out.

Grimhild had the kitchen door open; dry snow was sweeping in upon her;
the front of her gown was white with it. "Look at them there," she
said; "look at them. Gurth is whipping them round the garth. See how
they huddle--heed their crying. There, there--and there go I among
them, wringing my hands." She clutched his arm. "Hush--and there go
you."

Thorstan's heart jumped, and then fell quiet. "Do you see me there,
mistress?"

"You are standing there in the shadow of the byre. He will not touch
you. Round and round. No rest in the snow." Then she turned to him
and screamed: "Don't let him touch me!" She caught at him and he tried
to draw her into the house; but she struggled fiercely, and before he
c