e talk ran upon the
business of the Thing, and then Gunnar turned and asked what answer
Hauskuld would give if he offered to lay down money for Hallgerda.

'What do you say, Hrut?' inquired Hauskuld.

'It ought not to be,' replied Hrut. 'No man has aught but good to say of
you; no man has aught but ill to say of her. And this I must not hide
from you.'

'I thank you for your plain speech,' said Gunnar; 'but my soul is still
set on wedding Hallgerda. And we have spoken together, and are agreed in
this matter.'

But though Hrut knew that his words were vain, he told Gunnar all that
had happened in respect of Hallgerda and her two husbands. And Gunnar
weighed it for a while, and then he said, 'You know the saying,
"Forewarned is forearmed." Doubtless it is true, all that you have told
of Hallgerda, but I am strong, and have travelled far, and if we can
make a bargain, so shall it be.'

So a messenger was sent for Hallgerda, and she betrothed herself, as she
had done to Glum, and after that Gunnar rode over to Njal, and told him
what things had happened.

'Evil will come of it betwixt you and me,' said Njal sadly.

'No woman, or man either, shall ever work ill between us,' answered
Gunnar, who loved Njal more than his own father.

'She works ill wherever she goes,' replied Njal, 'and you will never
cease making atonements for her;' but he said no more, for he was a wise
man and wasted no words, and when Gunnar asked him to come to the
wedding feast he gave his promise that he would be there.

* * * * *

The winter after Gunnar's wedding, he and Hallgerda were bidden to a
great feast at Njal's house. Njal and his wife greeted them heartily,
and by-and-by Helgi, Njal's son, came, and with him Thorhalla his wife.
Then Bergthora, Njal's wife, went up to Hallgerda, and said, 'Give place
to Thorhalla,' but Hallgerda would not, and she fell to quarrelling with
Bergthora, and at last Bergthora taunted Hallgerda with having plotted
to do Thorwald her husband to death. At that Hallgerda turned and said
to Gunnar: 'It is nothing to be married to the strongest man in Iceland,
if you avenge not these insults, Gunnar.'

But Gunnar cried that he would take no part in women's quarrels, least
of all in Njal's house, and bade Hallgerda come home with him.

'We shall meet again, Bergthora,' said Hallgerda as she mounted the
sleigh. Then they rode back to Lithend and spent the rest of the winter
th