Frey and His Wife

by Maurice Hewlett

She considered whether he was laughing at her, and then asked him suddenly, was he married, had he children?

"No, sweetheart," he said, "but I should like a wife very well if I could get one to my mind."

Now she reproved him. "You must not say that. I am not to be called so."

"Why, what is the harm in that?" he said. "It's what I used to call Sorrel, my mare."

"It may be so," she replied, "but I am not your mare."

"No indeed," he said. "But what then shall I call you? Shall I say 'Pretty one' or 'Kind lass'?"

"No. Frey would dislike it."

"But," he said, "all these names are true of you."

She said, "Frey will like them all the less."

Gunnar said that he would risk it. And certain it is that he did, and that she said nothing more about it.