Stay! Think ye Ornulf will be followed by a train
of mourners, like a whimpering woman? Stay, I say!--I can bear my
Thorolf alone. (With calm strength.) Sonless I go; but none shall
say that he saw me bowed. (He goes slowly out.)
HIORDIS (with forced laughter). Ay, let him go as he will; we
shall scarce need many men to face him should he come with strife
again! Now, Dagny--I wot it is the last time thy father shall sail
from Iceland on such a quest!
SIGURD (indignant). Oh, shame!
DAGNY (likewise). And thou canst scoff at him--scoff at him, after
all that has befallen?
HIORDIS. A deed once done, 'tis wise to praise it. This morning
I swore hate and vengeance against Ornulf;--the slaying of Jokul I
might have forgotten--all, save that he cast shame upon my lot. He
called me a leman; if it _be_ so, it shames me not; for Gunnar is
mightier now than thy father; he is greater and more famous than
Sigurd, thine own husband!
DAGNY (in wild indignation). There thou errest, Hiordis--and even
now shall all men know that thou dwellest under a weakling's roof!
SIGURD (vehemently). Dagny, beware!
GUNNAR. A weakling!
DAGNY. It shall no longer be hidden; I held my peace till thou
didst scoff at my father and my dead brothers; I held my peace while
Ornulf was here, lest he should learn that Thorolf fell by a dastard's
hand.
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