GANDALF. Who are you, woman?
BLANKA. I? A poor, poor child!
GANDALF. Yet certainly the fairest on the isle.
BLANKA. The fairest? That indeed is possible, For here there's no one else.
GANDALF. What,—no one else?
BLANKA. Unless my father be,—but he is old And has a silver beard, as long as this; No, after all I think I win the prize.
GANDALF. You have a merry spirit.
BLANKA. Not always now!
GANDALF. But tell me, pray, how this is possible; You say you live alone here with your father, Yet I have heard men say most certainly The island here is thickly populated?
BLANKA. It was so once, three years ago or more; But,—well, it is a sad and mournful tale— Yet you shall hear it if you wish.