, madness and death. It was characteristic, as has
been said, that the sufferer turned from his kind, and turned markedly
from whom he knew best.

Thorstan made his preparations carefully, and instructed Gudrid. As a
wife who may be allowed a last word with her husband condemned to die,
she took and gave her kisses. The time was too great for tears, the
heart too faint for strong embraces. All she could do she did. She
would obey him, she would not show herself; but she would be always at
hand. She sat mostly at the head of his bed in the wall, hidden by a
curtain, but ready to fetch and carry; to bring him food which Thorstan
Black could give him; hot stones for his feet, hot rags to ease the
pain in his limbs. He hardly opened his eyes, hardly ever groaned; but
when the fever ran high he talked incessantly, in fierce and rapid
whispers--and she heard told over again the week of rapture and dream
under the snow in the empty ship. She suffered greatly under this
affliction, both by the memories it evoked and the knowledge that such
things could never be again. Her modesty might have been offended; but
Thorstan Black was very kind to her. He used to go gently away when
the sufferer began to speak, and would contrive his returns so as not
to intrude on any privacy. Her heart was full of gratitude to the
black-bearded giant, so huge and so gentle.

The fever seemed to eat Thorstan up; he became so thin that his cheeks
sank away into hollows, and his bones stuck out so sharply that the
skin cracked. Gudrid began to have horror of him. She thought that
her lover was dead, and that this was some terrible mock-image of him
sent there to haunt her. She seemed to become younger as he grew more
like an old man. She was afraid to be left alone with him. Love had
been frightened out of her, and even pity scarce dared to be there.
She could not believe that this was the man who had so keenly loved and
worshipped her body, and by his music had uplifted her soul. She had
seen Thore die and had been compassionate to the end. She remembered
how she had kissed him in the very article of death, and shuddered as
she thought of kissing this living corpse. Her eyes besought Thorstan
Black not to leave her, and he rarely did--for by this time her
husband's weakness was such that, whatever he may have said in his
fever, he could hardly be heard.

Towards the end--as Thorstan Black knew it must be--he persuaded Gudrid
to l