Holmsten stopped and looked round him. He caught a warning and slightly anxious look from his brother, Haasten. He saw Leif's bowed head and caught a glimpse of his serious face; he saw Ingolf's face grow rigid with quiet expectation. And he saw Helga standing anxious and uncertain and looking at Leif.
Holmsten smiled. For a while he stood with his burning gaze fixed upon Helga, as though waiting to catch her eye. Then he lifted his horn and said in loud tones: "I make this vow with Brage's toast, that I will marry Helga, daughter of Orn, or no other woman." There was silence in the hall. Helga remained standing still for a while. She looked intently at Leif, and saw the blood mount to his face and his shaking fingers grip the foot of the horn. When she saw that he would succeed in controlling himself, she silently left the hall, her face very pale.
Haasten had sprung up from his place when Holmsten made his vow, but had sat down again without saying anything. Ingolf sat with a smile on his face but a look in his blue eyes that was as sharp as a knife. Orn smiled graciously at Holmsten, and Haersten laughed contentedly.
At last Leif looked up. There was a hard and hostile look in his usually cheerful eyes. He looked slowly round, and let his glance dwell for a while on each of Atle's sons, and finally on his sworn brother, Ingolf, as if he were considering him especially. He looked almost as if he would not be sorry to encounter them all at once should that be necessary. To Orn he only vouchsafed a hasty and contemptuous glance.
Holmsten quite understood the effect his words had produced on each of those whom his speech concerned. He looked round with composure and continued cheerfully: "Now I have begun this game. Now it is your turn, friend Ingolf."
Ingolf gave no sign of rising. He turned his face towards Haasten and said in a quiet and firm voice which was heard over the whole hall: "It seems to me it is now Haasten's turn to continue the game. He is our leader, and the wisest of us all besides."
Haasten met his look and rose slowly. He did not find words at first, and remained standing silent for a while, looking down. A hush of expectation spread in the hall. When Haasten at last spoke his voice was quiet and troubled. "I make the vow," he said, "that I will judge justly and impartially, if a judgment should ever be demanded from me."
Haasten sat down with a melancholy air after speaking. Holmsten said cheerfully: "Your obscure vow does not seem to me to bear out the assertion that you are the wisest of us all. How will you act, if it is between your friends on one side and your enemies on the other that you must pronounce judgment?"
Haasten answered in a severe and discouraging tone: "That I intend myself to determine."
Ingolf rose. He smiled no longer; his look was serious and his tone firm and quiet. "With Brage's toast I make the vow that I will not divide my inheritance with any one but my sworn brother, Leif. May all bright gods and all good people present hear it." When Orn had heard that vow, he rose with some difficulty. Suddenly he seemed very old. The look which he cast at Ingolf was not friendly. In gloomy silence he left the hall.