Thorstan was now strongly moved. He wrung his hands together. "I beg you to tell me just what was said about that."
She coloured deeply. "No, I cannot tell you."
But Thorstan said: "I know what it was. It was said that you would have two husbands. Was it not so?"
She could not tell him the truth; so she said, "Yes." Then Thorstan said in a voice which did not sound like his, "That is another reason why I must go." And then they looked at each other for a measurable space of time—and then Thorstan got up and left her.
When they met again he was as he had always been before; but Gudrid was frightened, and insisted on going home to Stockness. It was hard to persuade Eric Red to let her leave him. He had grown very fond of her, and the more so because he hated his own daughter Freydis. But Gudrid held to her determination, and won her own way. At parting old Eric took her in his arms. "I am loth to let thee go, dear child," he said, "and afraid lest I lose thee altogether. But thou art between two old men who love thee, and Thore has the first claim. Promise me this, that if he die before me thou wilt come back to Brattalithe and be a daughter to me."
"Yes," Gudrid said, "I promise you that."
"Right," said old Eric. "Then I shall live to see thee again." With that he kissed her and let her go.
XVI
Thorwald told Leif that he had been too faint-hearted in his explorations of Wineland. "You were bolder than Biorn, I grant you," he said; "but you only nibbled at the rind after all. I promise you I will dig down deeper into the meat."
"Dig," said Leif, "dig by all means. But look that you don't dig your grave. I saw no men the length and breadth of the land; and yet it is unreasonable to think that no men have been engendered to live in such a fine and fruitful country. If our father were not so old and hard to move, I tell you I should be for cutting adrift from Greenland and settling out there. But then I would go in a larger way than you intend. I would take a wife first of all——"