_Asbjorn_ (_pushing forth between them_).--You wretched knave!

_Broddi_.--Shame upon you, Helgi Skaftason!

_Helga_.--What business of yours is it? (_Smiling, to_ HELGI.) You may
depend upon me for rewarding you for the precious stain you have put on
my veil. Not just now. I shall find you later, Helgi Skaftason!

_Alf_ (_to_ BRODDI).--She will bring a plague upon us all; let us draw a
sack over her head.[A]

[Footnote A: A measure taken against the influence of the 'evil eye' of
witches.]

_Broddi_.--I shall kill you, Alf!

_Helga_ (_to_ BRAND).--Is it from our kinsmen at Oddi that you have
learned how to keep an eternal truce, Brand, 'a truce which shall
persist the while the earth lasts and men live'?

_Brand_.--Lady!

_Broddi_.--Brand Kolbeinsson had no part in Thorolf's execution.

_Helga_ (_smiling_).--Then it is clear he has kept the eternal truce.
Perhaps neither you had a part in it, Broddi?

_Broddi_.--I shall not deny that I had, lady.

_Helga_.--But little you know the mind of my husband, Broddi, if you