waist. Fastened to the girdle hangs the sheath of a little dagger,
but there is no blade in it. She is plainly of high rank, and
unwedded. Now her fair face is set and hard, and it would almost
seem that despair was written on it.

After those two the other folk seem hardly worth a glance, though
they are richly dressed, and the men are as well armed as the jarl
their leader. Nor do they seem to have eyes for any but those two
at their head, and no word passes among them. Their faces also are
set and hard, as if they had somewhat heavy to see to, and would
fain carry it through to the end unflinching.

So they come to the edge of the sea, where the boat waits them, and
there halt; and the tall jarl faces the girl at his side, and
speaks to her in a dull voice, while the people slowly make a half
circle round them, listening.

"Now we have come to the end," he says, "and from henceforth this
land shall know you and the ways of you no more. There were other
dooms which men had thought more fitting for you, but they were
dooms of death. You shall not die at our hands. You are young, and
you have time to bethink you whither the ways you have trodden
shall lead you. If the sea spares you, begin life afresh. If it
spares you not, maybe it is well. No others shall be beguiled by
that fair face of yours. The Norns heed not the faces of men."

He pauses; but the girl stands silent, hand locked in hand, and
with no change of face. Nor does she look at her accuser, but gazes
steadily out to the still sea, which seems endless, for there is no
line between sea and sky in the hot haze. For all its exceeding