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.