GUNNAR (with a glance across the table). Ah, Sigurd, Sigurd, didst thou but know——!
DAGNY (softly). This is too much—even for a friend!
SIGURD. Peace, wife! (Aloud, to the others.) Ay truly, Gunnar is the most honourable of all men; so would I esteem him to my dying day, even had he never done that deed; for that I hold more lightly than ye.
HIORDIS. There speaks thy envy, Sigurd Viking!
SIGURD (smiling). Mightily art thou mistaken. (Kindly, to GUNNAR, drinking to him across the table.) Hail, noble Gunnar; our friendship shall stand fast, whosoever may seek to break it.
HIORDIS. No one, that I wot of, has such a thought.
SIGURD. Say not that; I could almost find it in me to think that
thou hadst bidden us hither to stir up strife.
HIORDIS. That is like thee, Sigurd; now art thou wroth that thou
may'st not be held the mightiest man at the feast-board.
SIGURD. I have ever esteemed Gunnar more highly than myself.
HIORDIS. Well, well—second to Gunnar is still a good place, and—— (with a side-glance at THOROLF) had Ornulf been here, he could have had the third seat.