may see what I have to tell Thorbeorn."

"Yes, yes, I know," Einar said. "He is a man of rank, and I no such
thing. I grant it. But I have money, do you see? I am well off both
in ships and credit; my name stands well in the world. And I am young,
and he is old. I think I could be useful to Thorbeorn, if he would
allow it--and I need not tell you I set no bounds in reason upon what I
would put down for the sake of the match."

"Well," said Orme, "I will go and see him."

Gudrid could hear nothing of this until the morning; but then Einar
told her what he had arranged with Orme. She now considered herself as
pledged to Einar, though she was nothing of the kind. Loyalty to him
persuaded her of it, and he found that very sweet, and was touched.
They sat close together on the brae; she allowed him her hand, and
rested her cheek on his shoulder. Einar, who was an honest young man,
began to fear that he was doing wrong to allow it. But he could not
resist a word or two for himself. He told her of his birth, saying
that his father, Thorgar, of Thorgar's Fell, had been a freedman, but
had done well since. "It is right you should know these things," he
said.

Gudrid said that it was nothing to her; but Einar warned her that it
might be much to her father. He went on: "To you perhaps it is enough
that I love you dearly--and to me it is enough. But who knows? Maybe
I shall not have the right to talk to you after to-morrow or next day.
Now I wish to say this to you, that I shall never look at another
woman, and will bind myself to you if you will accept it of me."

She sat erect at that and looked gravely at him. "You ought not to
bind yourself," she said, "since I cannot."

"You cannot. I know that," he said. "But I both can and will."

Thereupon he brought out a handful of money from his breast and chose a
gold coin of thin soft gold, with the head of a ragged old king on it.
He told her where it came from, and how he had had it from a dead man
after a battle in the mouth of a great river in Russia. Then he bit it
in the middle with his teeth, and indented it fairly. He bent it to
and fro until it was broken in half; and next he bored a hole in each
portion, and gave one to Gudrid.

"Now I have tokened myself to you, my love," he said. "Do you wear
that upon a chain which I will give you presently, and remember when
you look at it, or take it in your hands, that I wear the fellow. If
ever you wan