rid, and wanted her to confess and communicate; but
she would not. "No, I couldn't do that," she said, "without asking my
foster-mother."

"Ask her, then, my daughter," said the priest.

"But she would have to ask my father," said Gudrid, "who would not
allow it."

"But your father is a Christian, surely?" said the priest.

"Certainly he is a Christian. He went into the river to be one."

"Then he will order you to do your duty."

Gudrid shook her head. "No, no. He would not like it at all."

The priest spoke to Halldis about it, and scared her. "It is not the
custom here," she said, "but I will ask Orme." The priest himself
asked Orme, who rubbed his chin. "One thing at a time is a good rule,"
he said. "We in Iceland are not much given to private talks between
men and women. Husband and wife is all very well. And Thorbeorn is a
peculiar man. I recommend you to wait for a little. These are early
days for new customs."

The priest was vexed. He did not care to be called a man.

III

The second summer after Gudrid came to Erne Pillar a fine ship came in
from Norway with a full cargo. She came in late in the evening, and
everybody was on the shore to see her. Orme knew whose she was and all
about her. She was Einar's ship, he said, and overdue. In the morning
she would discharge her cargo in his warehouse, "and then," he said to
Gudrid, "there will be matters for you to see to, which will last you a
good while. Fine cloth, Einar always brings, and embroidered lengths
from Russia. We shall have you going as gay as a kingfisher about the
ways."

Nothing was done that night except that Orme was rowed out to the ship
and stayed drinking with the master till late. But in the morning,
when Gudrid went to Mass, she saw men bringing up the cargo from the
quay; and when she came back from Mass, there, at the door of Orme's
warehouse, was Orme himself talking to a stranger who had foreign
clothes on him, a gold chain round his loins, from which hung a goodly
knife in a sheath, and rings in his ears. Gudrid, being well brought
up, looked neither to the right nor left, but dipped her head to her
foster-father as she went by. She had on her sea-blue gown, and a blue
silk handkerchief knotted in her hair. The handkerchief was there in
obedience to the priest, who had told her she must not come to church
bare-headed, even in the summer-time. The morning being fresh, her
cheeks were a-flower wit