"My wife and her sister offer you these clothes. Yours are wet. Is there anything else that you wish? Are you hungry, or thirsty? What would you have?"
"I want solitude," was Elwig's answer, rejecting the proffered clothes with a gesture; "I want the black night. Only that will suit me at present."
"Very well—follow me," I said to her.
Leading the way, I opened the door of a little chamber, and raising the lamp in order to light its interior, I said to the priestess:
"You see yonder couch—rest yourself, and may the gods render peaceful to you the night that you are to pass under my roof."
Elwig made no answer; she threw herself upon the couch and covered her face with her hands.
"And now," I said to my wife as I closed and locked the door, "these duties of hospitality being attended to, I burn with the desire to embrace my little Alguen."
I found you, my child, sleeping peacefully in your cradle. I covered you with kisses, that were all the sweeter to me seeing I had that very day feared never to see you again. Your mother and her sister examined and bandaged my wounds. They were slight.
While Ellen and Sampso were attending to me, I spoke to them of the man whom I had caught sight of on the window sill, and who seemed to be peeping through the shutters. They were greatly astonished at my words; they had heard no sound; they had been together since evening. While talking over the matter, Ellen said to me:
"Did you hear the news?"