'Of what?'

'Of getting drunk, and wasting their strength and their fame, and their
hard-won treasures upon eating and drinking, and fine clothes, and bad
women.'

'She is most pure herself, and she preaches purity to all who hear her.'

'Curse preaching. I have preached for these four months.'

'Perhaps she may have some more winning arguments--perhaps--'

'I know. Such a beautiful bit of flesh and blood as she is might get a
hearing, when a grizzled old head-splitter like me was called a dotard.
Eh? Well. It's natural.'

A long silence.

'She is a grand woman. I never saw such a one, and I have seen many.
There was a prophetess once, lived in an island in the Weser-stream--and
when a man saw her, even before she spoke a word, one longed to crawl
to her feet on all fours, and say, "There, tread on me; I am not fit for
you to wipe your feet upon." And many a warrior did it.... Perhaps I may
have done it myself, before now .... And this one is strangely like her.
She would make a prince's wife, now.'

Philammon started. What new feeling was it, which made him indignant at
the notion?

'Beauty? What's body without soul? What's beauty without wisdom? What's
beauty without chastity? Best! fool! wallowing in the mire which every
hog has fouled!'

'Like a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman who is
without discretion.'

'Who said that?'

'Solomon, the king of Israel.'

'I never heard of him. But he was a right Sagaman, whoever said it. And
she is a pure maiden, that other one?'

'Spotless as the'--blessed Virgin, Philammon was going to say--but
checked himself. There were sad recollections about the words.

Wulf sat silent for a few minutes, while Philammon's thoughts reverted
at once to the new purpose for which alone life seemed worth having....
To find his sister! That one thought had in a few hours changed and
matured the boy into the man. Hitherto he had been only the leaf before
the wind, the puppet of every new impression; but now circumstance,
which had been leading him along in such soft fetters for many a month,
was become his deadly foe; and all his energy and cunning, all his
little knowledge of man and of society, rose up sturdily and shrewdly
to fight in this new cause. Wulf was now no longer a phenomenon to be
wondered at, but an instrument to be used. The broken hints which he had
just given of discontent with Pelagia's presence inspired the boy with
sudden hope, and caut