lf.

SIGNE.

Margit, say what you mean!

MARGIT. [Stroking her hair.]

I mean--nay, no more! 'Twill shortly be seen--;
I mean--should a wooer ride hither to-night--?

SIGNE.

A wooer? For whom?

MARGIT.

For you.

SIGNE. [Laughing.]

For me?
That he'd ta'en the wrong road full soon he would see.

MARGIT.

What would you say if a valiant knight
Begged for your hand?

SIGNE.

That my heart was too light
To think upon suitors or choose a mate.

MARGIT.

But if he were mighty, and rich, and great?

SIGNE.

O, were he a king, did his palace hold
Stores of rich garments and ruddy gold,
'Twould ne'er set my heart desiring.
With you I am rich enough here, meseeems,
With summer and sun and the murmuring streams,
And the birds in the branches quiring.
Dear sister mine--here shall my dwelling be;
And to give any wooer my hand in fee,
For that I am too busy, and my heart too full of glee!

[SIGNE runs out to the left, singing.

MARGIT.

[After a pause.] Gudmund Alfson coming hither! Hither--to
Solhoug? No, no, it cannot be.--Signe heard him singing, she
said! When I have heard the pine-trees moaning in the forest
afar, when I have heard the waterfall thunder and the birds
pipe their lure in the tree-tops, it has many a time seemed to
me as though, through it all, the sound of Gudmund's songs came
blended. And yet he was far from here.--Signe has deceived
herself. Gudmund cannot be coming.

[BENGT enters hastily from the back.

BENGT.

[Entering, calls loudly.] An unlooked-for guest my wife!

MARGIT.

What guest?

BENGT.

Your kinsman, Gudmund Alfson! [Calls through the doorway on the
right.] Let the best guest-room be prepared--and that forthwith!

MARGIT.

Is he, then, already here?

BENGT.

[Looking out through the passage-way.] Nay, not yet; but he
cannot be far off. [Calls again to the right.] The carved oak
bed, with the dragon-heads! [Advances to MARGIT.] His shield-
bearer brings a message of greeting from him; and he himself is
close behind.

MARGIT.

His shield-bearer! Comes he hither with a shield-bearer!

BENGT.

Aye, by my faith he does. He has a shield-bearer and six armed
men in his train. What would you? Gudmund Alfson is a far other
man than he was when he set forth to seek his fortune. B