True, at this moment the elf looked by no means angelic, but thoroughly evil, as, darting only one swift glance of furious rage at the tall young noble, she seized the old woman violently by the shoulder and in a low voice stifled by suppressed fury--cried: "Grandmother!--Away!--To the marshes! Zercho the bondman must guide us. Away!"
"Gently, child, gently! Did not you hear? It will be safer on the mountain."
"Safer perhaps for us; but not for those whom we--no, whom I should then be near. Go," she cried furiously to the youth, "save yourself, I advise you, from the red-hair. 'False and spitting her ire like the fox and the fire.' Was that the way it ran, you witty fellow? As soon as the daughter of our neighbor Ero, giggling with spiteful mirth, told me your last jibe against me, I climbed the hay-ladder to the ridge-pole of our house and painted our white star up there red: painted it very thick and bright, so that you could see it from the edge of the forest and keep far away from the evil color. Very far--do you hear?"
CHAPTER VI.
Adalo had now recovered from his astonishment.
"I knew," he said, smiling, "that the elves of light dwell above our heads; but I was not aware that they had nests among the boughs of the oaks."
"And why not? If you reproach me with being an elf of light."
"It is no reproach, I should think. What says the elf-song? 'Fairest fair are not the ases, but the elves.'"
"'Sharp is the bite of the squirrel, but Bissula's is sharper still.' You yourself classed me with the biting animals, so do not wonder that I fled to my red, snarling, biting sisters when I heard in the distance the haughty footfall of the hated Adalo. I detected your approach even sooner than the long-practised ear of my blind grandmother. Hate is quick to hear."
"Do you hate me?" asked the youth. His voice sounded low and sad.