CHAPTER I
Fru Alma had come to Iceland knowing nothing of the language of the country. Ketill and his brother had always spoken Danish; it had never occurred to her that all Icelanders might not understand it.
When she came to Borg on her first arrival, and met her father-in-law, who could neither understand her nor speak to her, she realized that this ignorance on her part would make her lonely and isolated, and she asked her husband:
“Why did you not teach me Icelandic, Ketill?”
But Ketill answered curtly. He was in ill-humour on account of the failure of his first plans, and his reception generally.
“Never thought of it,” was all he said.
Alma, whose womanly instinct had told her at once that all was not as it should be among the family, glanced anxiously from one to another of those round her. Then she observed:
“But I can’t talk to any one.”
“You can talk to me.”
Alma was silent. It was the first time her husband had spoken unkindly to her.