"----this Iduna has thrown you over, at which I am sure I do not wonder,
what mistresses have you in Byzantium, Olaf the Dane?"

"None at all," I answered. "Women are pleasant, but one may buy sweets
too dear, and all that ever I saw put together were not worth my brother
Steinar, who lost his life through one of them."

"Tell me, Captain Olaf, are you a secret member of this new society of
hermits of which they talk so much, who, if they see a woman, must hold
their faces in the sand for five minutes afterwards?"

"I never heard of them, Augusta."

"Are you a Christian?"

"No; I am considering that religion--or rather its followers."

"Are you a pagan, then?"

"No. I fought a duel with the god Odin, and cut his head off with this
sword, and that is why I left the North, where they worship Odin."

"Then what are you?" she said, stamping her foot in exasperation.

"I am the captain of your Imperial Majesty's private guard, a little of
a philosopher, and a fair poet in my own language, not in Greek. Also, I
can play the harp."

"You say 'not in Greek,' for fear lest I should ask you to write verses
to me, which, indeed, I shall never do, Olaf. A soldier, a poet, a