as she said, loved the worship that was her beauty's due, what if she
were innocent, after all?

Perhaps my face showed the thoughts that were passing through my mind.
At the least, she who knew me well found skill to read them. She crept
towards me, still on her knees; she cast her arms about me, and, resting
her weight upon me, drew herself to her feet.

"Olaf," she whispered, "I love you, I love you well, as I have always
done, though I may have erred a little, as women wayward and still unwed
are apt to do. Olaf, they told me yonder how you had matched yourself
against the god, with his priests for judges, and smitten him, and I
thought this the greatest deed that ever I have known. I used to think
you something of a weakling, Olaf, not in your body but in your mind,
one lost in music and in runes, who feared to put things to the touch
of war; but you have shown me otherwise. You slew the bear; you overcame
Steinar, who was so much stronger than you are, in the battle of the
ships; and now you have bearded Odin, the All-father. Look, his head
lies there, hewn off by you for the sake of one who, after all, had done
you wrong. Olaf, such a deed as that touches a woman's heart, and he
who does 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