The Waif Woman | Page 4

these things were for no use but to be shown. Here she had the brooch and the shame of it, and might not wear it. So all night she quaked with the fear of discovery, and wept tears of rage that she should have sinned in vain. Day came, and Aud must rise; but she went about the house like a crazy woman. She saw the eyes of Asdis rest on her strangely, and at that she beat the maid. She scolded the house folk, and, by her way of it, nothing was done aright. First she was loving to her husband and made much of him, thinking to be on his good side when trouble came. Then she took a better way, picked a feud with him, and railed on the poor man till his ears rang, so that he might be in the wrong beforehand. The brooch she hid without, in the side of a hayrick. All this while Thorgunna lay in the bed-place, which was not her way, for by custom she was early astir. At last she came forth, and there was that in her face that made all the house look one at the other and the heart of Aud to be straitened. Never a word the guest spoke, not a bite she swallowed, and they saw the strong shudderings take and shake her in her place. Yet a little, and still without speech, back she went into her bad-place, and the door was shut.
"That is a sick wife," said Finnward, "Her weird has come on her."
And at that the heart of Aud was lifted up with hope.
All day Thorgunna lay on her bed, and the next day sent for Finnward.
"Finnward Keelfarer," said she, "my trouble is come upon me, and I am at the end of my days."
He made the customary talk.
"I have had my good things; now my hour is come; and let suffice," quoth she. "I did not send for you to hear your prating."
Finnward knew not what to answer, for he saw her soul was dark.
"I sent for you on needful matters," she began again. "I die here--I!--in this black house, in a bleak island, far from all decency and proper ways of man; and now my treasure must be left. Small pleasure have I had of it, and leave it with the less!" cried she.
"Good woman, as the saying is, needs must," says Finnward, for he was nettled with that speech.
"For that I called you," quoth Thorgunna. "In these two chests are much wealth and things greatly to be desired. I wish my body to be laid in Skalaholt in the new church, where I trust to hear the mass-priests singing over my head so long as time endures. To that church I will you to give what is sufficient, leaving your conscience judge of it. My scarlet cloak with the silver, I will to that poor fool your wife. She longed for it so bitterly, I may not even now deny her. Give her the brooch as well. I warn you of her; I was such as she, only wiser; I warn you, the ground she stands upon is water, and whoso trusts her leans on rottenness. I hate her and I pity her. When she comes to lie where I lie--" There she broke off. "The rest of my goods I leave to your black- eyed maid, young Asdis, for her slim body and clean mind. Only the things of my bed, you shall see burned."
"It is well," said Finnward.
"It may be well," quoth she, "if you obey. My life has been a wonder to all and a fear to many. While I lived none thwarted me and prospered. See to it that none thwart me after I am dead. It stands upon your safety."
"It stands upon my honour," quoth Finnward, "and I have the name of an honourable man."
"You have the name of a weak one," says Thorgunna. "Look to it, look to it, Finnward. Your house shall rue it else."
"The rooftree of my house is my word," said Finnward.
"And that is a true saying," says the woman. "See to it, then. The speech of Thorgunna is ended."
With that she turned her face against the wall and Finnward left her.
The same night, in the small hours of the clock, Thorgunna passed. It was a wild night for summer, and the wind sang about the eaves and clouds covered the moon, when the dark woman wended. From that day to this no man has learned her story or her people's name; but be sure the one was stormy and the other great. She had come to that isle, a waif woman, on a ship; thence she flitted, and no more remained of her but her heavy chests and