Are
you there, Thorstan? I cannot see you." Thorstan said, "Here I am."

Thore spoke again. "Take the hand of Gudrid, and tell me that you have
it." He faltered for a moment, but then looked at Gudrid, and called
her with that look. She went over and gave him her hand.

"Is it done?" said Thore.

"Yes, it is done," he was told.

"Her father was too quick when he married her to me, and you, maybe,
were over-slow," Thore said. "She would have married you at first if
you had asked her. Now you must make the most of your time, for it
won't be long. And I knew what the matter was between you from the
first, but in those days I loved her dearly and could not let her go.
Now do you two be married soon, and take it not amiss with me that I
have outstayed my time."

"You do wrong to speak so," Thorstan said. "Gudrid has been faithful
and loving to you; and it is no fault of hers that she knew how it
would turn out."

"No, no," said Thore. "She has been good to me."

"Now I will tell you," said Thorstan, "that I have the second sight
myself, and know what my fate is, and that she must take a third
husband. But if it were my fate to die the day after my wedding with
Gudrid, I would wed her if she would take me. You, Thore, are dying a
Christian. See to it, then, that you do not die with hard judgments of
Gudrid in your heart."

Thore lay still, breathing very short. They believed he was struggling
with his thoughts.

Presently he called her, and she went to him, and kneeled by the
bedhead, and put her cheek against his. He lay very still, and she
remained patiently waiting. So then he had a great convulsion, and
struggled in it; and then turned violently in his bed and sat up. He
saw Gudrid kneeling, and smiled at her. It was as if he had newly
awoken out of sleep, and was himself again as she had first known him.
She, as if knowing his mind, leaned towards him. He kissed her
forehead, and lay down again. In a few moments more he was dead.

When they had laid him out, and lighted tapers about him, Thorstan
said: "Do you now go and sleep, and I will sit up with him." She asked
with the eyes that she might stay, but he would not have it. So she
went away and made a bed by the fire, and slept long. He did not touch
her, would not look at her. They neither kissed when they parted, nor
at all until Thore was buried. But after that, when she was at
Brattalithe, and he found her there, he took her in