oes it is the man she would wish to lie upon her breast and be her
lord. Olaf, all this evil past may yet be forgotten. We might go and
live elsewhere for awhile, or always, for with your wisdom and my beauty
joined together what could we not conquer? Olaf, I love you now as I
have never loved before, cannot you love me again?"

Her arms clung about me; her beautiful blue eyes, shimmering with
moonlit tears, held my eyes, and my heart melted beneath her breath as
winter snows melt in the winds of spring. She saw, she understood; she
cast herself upon me, shaking her long hair over both of us, and seeking
my lips. Almost she had found them, when, feeling something hard between
me and her, something that hurt me, I looked down. Her cloak had slipped
or been thrown aside, and my eye caught the glint of gold and jewels. In
an instant I remembered--the Wanderer's necklace and the dream--and with
those memories my heart froze again.

"Nay, Iduna," I said, "I loved you well; there's no man will ever love
you more, and you are very fair. Whether you speak true words or false,
I do not know; it is between you and your own spirit. But this I do
know: that betwixt us runs the river of Steinar's blood, aye, and
the blood of Thorvald, my father, of Thora, my mother, of Ragnar, my
brother, and of many another man who clung to us, and that is a stream
which I cannot cross. Find you another husband, Iduna the Fair, since
never will I call you wife."

She loosed her arms from round me, and, lifting them again, unclasped
the Wanderer's necklace from about her breast.

"This it is," she said, "which has brought all these evils on me. Take
it back again, and, when you find her, give it to that one for whom
it is meant, that one whom you love truly, as, whatever you may have
thought, you never have loved me."

Then she sank upon the ground, and resting her golden head upon dead
Steinar's breast, she wept.

I think it was then that Freydisa returned; at least, I recall her tall
form standing near the stone of sacrifice, gazing at us both, a strange
smile on her face.

"Have you withstood?" she said. "Then, truly, you are in the way of
victory and have less to fear from woman than I thought. All things
are ready as you commanded, my lord Olaf, and there remains but to
say farewell, which you had best do quickly, for they plot your death
yonder."

"Freydisa," I answered, "I go, but perchance I shall return again.
Meanwhile, all I