Margit.
[To herself.] Oh, torture, to have to endure it all.
[A short silence.
Gudmund.
How goes it, I pray, with your sister dear?
Margit.
Right well, I thank you.
Gudmund.
With you.
Margit.
[Breaks off.
She came, now three years since, to Solhoug with me.
[After a pause.
Ere long she'll be here, her friend to greet.
Gudmund.
Well I mind me of Signë's nature sweet.
No guile she dreamed of, no evil knew.
When I call to remembrance her eyes so blue
I must think of the angels in heaven.
But of years there have passed no fewer than seven;
In that time much may have altered. Oh, say
If she, too, has changed so while I've been away?
Margit.
She too? Is it, pray, in the halls of kings
That you learn such courtly ways, Sir Knight?
To remind me thus of the change time brings—
