I had not expected from you
so much genuine, ardent woman's love! But, you obstinate little
creature, you hypocrite,--why did you so long conceal and deny your
feelings toward him from your father and your friend?"

"Why? That is perfectly plain," exclaimed the girl, indignantly. "From
embarrassment and shame. It is terrible, it is a frightful disgrace,
for a young girl, instead of hating the man who seized her in the
public market-place, and even kissed her at the same time, to love him.
It is utterly abominable."

Half weeping, half smiling, she hid her face on her friend's breast,
tenderly kissing a little gold cross that she wore round her neck
attached to a thin silver chain, and lovingly pressing to her bosom a
bronze semi-circle, inscribed with runes, that she wore on her arm.

"His betrothal and, alas, his marriage gift," she sighed.

"Yes, you love him deeply," said Hilda, smiling. "And he? He sent my
Gibamund to me with frequent messages of the anguish he was suffering,
and he was as grateful as a blind man who has been restored to sight
when I told him that he was indeed wholly unworthy of you; but if he
really desired to win you for his wife, he must ask you if you would
wed him, and then beg your father for your hand. This simple bit of
wisdom made him as happy as a child. He followed the counsel, and
now--"

"Now?" Eugenia interrupted, in almost comical indignation. "Now he has
not been seen at all for nearly three days. Who knows how far away he
may be?"

"Not very far," cried Hilda, laughing; "he is just riding into the
courtyard below."

Eugenia's little head was at the window like a flash of lightning. A
half-stifled cry of joy escaped her lips, then she instantly stooped
again.

"Oh, oh, how magnificent he looks!" cried Hilda, clasping her hands
with the most joyful surprise. "In full, heavy armor, a huge bear-head
with gaping jaws on his helmet--"

"Oh, yes! He killed it himself on the Auras Mountain," murmured the
little bride.

"And how the skin floats around his mighty shoulders! He carries a
spear as thick as a sapling, and on his shield--What is the emblem? A
stone-hammer?"

"Yes, yes," cried Eugenia, eagerly, lifting her head cautiously to the
window-sill, "that is his house-mark. His family descends, according to
ancient tradition, from a red-bearded demon with a hammer--I don't
remember the name."

"What demon?" exclaimed Hilda. "The god Donar is his ancestor, and
Thrasaric