Gudrid the Fair Part 14

She told him what she thought: "He is an old man now, and cannot help remembering his two sons."

"That is not like an Icelander," said Karlsefne. "You yourself, lady, show the spirit of our people better. You don't fret yourself vainly.

You were wedded to a good man. You were happy in him; he died. Well, you have had what you have had, and if there is to be no more, you will wait your turn. Is it not so?"

"It may be," Gudrid said. "I have learned not to build too high, by falling so far. And I think my Thorstan is at rest. He would not be if he were here now."

"Very likely not," said Karlsefne, "if he was of a jealous turn.

Moreover he was a poet, one who can always see in his mind a state much better than that he lives in. That's no way to be happy. But I will talk to Eric Red. He is friendly to me."

And so he did. "What is it, host, which makes you so heavy? Your friends say you brood over the past, but I tell them that is not likely."

"No, no," said Eric, "that's not the way of it at all. The present is bad enough."

"You are treating me n.o.bly," said Karlsefne. "I should be a churl if I did not tell you so. What else do you need?"

Then Eric said that he was aware how his house was diminished by misfortune. "I had a wife, but she has cut herself adrift; I have a daughter, but she has turned sour to me. Two of my sons are dead, look you. Now the time was when with a great houseful I could give a feast with the best. A man is best judged by his children. If they are free and high-hearted, he is judged a good man. But now I must receive you with broken rites, and it hurts me to the heart that you shall sail away in the spring of the year, and say to your friends: 'Old Eric is down in the world. A sadder Yule than that have I never spent.' I do what I can, but that is heavy on my mind."

"Nay, nay, friend," said Karlsefne, "that will never be the way of it.

I am better off than I hoped for--you are treating me like an earl.

Now if we are to do better and all be kings together, remember that I have a well-found s.h.i.+p out yonder, with stores of corn and meal, and malt for brewing; mead also, and smoked salmon are on board--whereof you shall make as free as you will, and provide such a feast as Greenland knows nothing of yet. But what a man you are to be fretted by such a thing as that!"

Eric said that he had lived in a great way all his life, and had not been used to stint his friends of hospitality. He thanked Karlsefne heartily, shook hands with him, and said, "Ask of me what you will, friend, and it shall be agreed to."

Karlsefne laughed. "Maybe I shall ask a great thing of you before I go to sea." He had made up his mind that he would have Gudrid from him if he could get her, but did not wish to precipitate matters and risk a refusal. "That fair woman has a delicate mind," he thought, "and is very religious. It will be well to make myself her friend before I offer to be her sweetheart."

The talk at the feast turned again to Wineland, and Leif Ericsson was eloquent about the sweetness of the air, the fertility of the soil, and the open winter weather which he had found there. Then Karlsefne asked Gudrid whether she would not like to go thither.

She shook her head. "Not now. Thorstan and I were on our way when the fate turned against us, and he died. It has brought us no luck yet.

Two of Eric's sons have died for the sake of Wineland. But you," she said, looking in his face, "you will go. I think you are a lucky man.

You have luck in your face."

"Eh," said Karlsefne, "I have thought myself pretty lucky so far; but now I am not so sure. I have been building on my luck since I came here. But I may get a fall."

She laughed. "You are bold, I can see, but yet you are careful too.

You do not build except on good footings."

"If you think me bold, lady," he said, with raised brows, "you will think me too bold perhaps presently. Remember, when that time comes, that if a man sees his profit within his reach he is a fool if he don't stretch out his hand."

"He may be a fool," she said, "to think it so near." Her colour was high, her eyes shone. His own, narrowed and intense, held them.

"Do you know the name I give you in my private mind?" he asked her.

She shook her head.

"I call you Constant-Kind."

"And why do you call me that? Do you think I am kind to every one?"

"I think that you have been," said Karlsefne, "and I believe that you would not willingly deny a service if you could do it."

"And what service do you ask of me?"

"Ah, I ask none as yet. But maybe I shall."

Certainly she knew what he wanted, and wondered whether he was the man predicted. Thorberg had prophesied an ugly man for one of her husbands. That could not be said of Karlsefne. He was not handsome by any means, but so full of fun that he would pa.s.s anywhere as well-looking. She had no love to give him; all that was buried with her doomed Thorstan; and yet she could see life to be a very pleasant thing with him beside her--a warm, sheltered, pleasant thing. She was rather of Freydis's opinion after an experience of two kinds of life, that a woman was happier in being loved than in loving. She had not thought so when Thorstan was her lover. Then her triumph and pride had been that she could give him inexhaustibly what he needed--but look how that had ended. She said to herself: "He will be kind to me, because he is kind by nature. I believe that is my nature too. Therefore I can give him what he wants, and find some comfort in it. I have known the highest, and that is enough for me. That will never come again.

Let the other suffice, if it will satisfy him." With that she put the thought away in her heart, wis.h.i.+ng to leave it there; yet she could not resist taking it out and looking at it now and again. It was still good to be loved, good to be desired, good to be the centre of a man's thoughts. Every time she looked at her h.o.a.rd it seemed a little brighter.

Karlsefne took his time. It was close upon the spring when he asked her if she would have him. She met his looks calmly, and told him what she felt about it. "I am not very old yet," she said, "but I have had a great deal of experience. I have been married twice, and loved deeply once. That can never be again."

"Nay," he said, "I don't ask impossibilities of you. But I have love enough in my heart for the two of us. Do you trust me?"

"Yes," she said, "I do trust you."

"Why then," said Karlsefne, "will you give yourself to me?"

She thought. "You shall ask Eric if he is willing," she told him. "He loves me, and he is an old man. Since my father died he has been father to me. I have had nothing but love and kindness from him and his family. I will not leave him now, if he needs me--for he knows, and I know, that if I leave him again it will be for the last time."

Karlsefne drew near her and put his arm about her. "I will ask him--but if he agrees you will come?" She smiled and nodded her head.

Then, "Will you kiss me?" he said.

"Is that in the bargain?"

He drew her close to him. "Oh, Gudrid, kiss me once. I'm on fire."

So then she kissed him.

Eric looked rather chap-fallen. "You are asking me for the jewel on my breast," he said.

"That I know very well," said Karlsefne.

"She is not only a fair woman, but a wise and good woman. She is sweet-mannered, and sweet-natured. The soothsay about her is that she will rear a great race."

"She shall, if I have anything to do with it," said Karlsefne. "You know the name they give me."

"I think highly of you," Eric allowed. "Everything speaks well for you. But I will tell you this. If my son Leif were not entangled with a foreign woman, an earl's daughter by whom he has got a son, it would have been my joy to see him take Gudrid and rear that great race to my name. But it may well be that she will fulfil her destiny with you rather."

"I believe she will," said Karlsefne. "The moment I clapped eyes on her I said to myself, 'There stands before you the sweetest woman that lightens the world.' And I have had no other thought or desire since which has not drawn me to her. If you will give her to me you will do me the utmost service one man can do another. And she will come to me if you say the word. I tell you that."

Eric said it should be as he wished. The last feast that fine old man was ever to see was that which he made for Gudrid's wedding with Karlsefne.

XXIV

Directly he was married Karlsefne began to talk about the Wineland voyage, first to Gudrid, and then to the company at Brattalithe, where he still lived. Gudrid was eager to go. She had always wanted that; and when she found herself with child, that did not deter her--nor her husband either. "I am a prosperous man," he said, "and bring good fortune with me. If you are not afraid, why should I be? Let us trust to our luck, my Gudrid." She believed in him more than in any man she had had to do with yet. He seemed to her a more fortunate man than Leif himself. So it was agreed upon.

Whether it was the lucky star of Karlsefne or not which prevailed, there was more stir about this expedition than had been about any.