"Now, I hold that I am lucky, for Thorwald has ever been a friend of our house." "Thorwald is dead," she answered in a low voice, which shook somewhat.

"I am the only child of the line left." "Why, then, I am still happy in being hailed as king by Queen Gerda here and now.
"It is a good omen, friends, is it not ?" He turned to the nobles round us with a bright smile, and they laughed and said that none could be better.

But one, a very tall man, older than most there, spoke to one of the courtmen hard by, and sent him aft with some message.

Then he went to Gerda and asked if she did not remember him.
"You were a little thing, though, when I came with your father to Thorwald's hall," he said; "mayhap you do not recall it, but we were good friends then for a week or two.

You have changed less than I." Gerda looked shyly at him, and at last smiled.
"I remember," she said.