BIORN (at the window). They are opening the gate. I hear the clatter of hoofs in the courtyard. It must be a knight.
FINN. A knight? A knight can it scarce be.
BIORN. Why not?
FINN. You said it yourself: the last of our knighthood is dead and gone. (Goes out to the right.)
BIORN. The accursed knave, with his prying and peering! What avails all my striving to hide and hush things? They whisper of her even now——; ere long will all men be clamouring for——
ELINA (comes in again through the door on the left; looks round her, and says with suppressed emotion). Are you alone, Biorn?
BIORN. Is it you, Mistress Elina?
ELINA. Come, Biorn, tell me one of your stories; I know you have more to tell than those that——
BIORN. A story? Now—so late in the evening——?
ELINA. If you count from the time when it grew dark at Ostrat,
it is late indeed.