Rodny said: “But where are your friends, that you come alone and unattended like a man of no honor?”
Hallvard seemed to find that hard to answer, and he waited a while; but at last he said: “I will tell it just as it is and not lie about it. I did not want my mates along for fear that you would not keep faith with me, and I should be put to shame before them. And now I see that I have behaved like a great fool from the beginning; though the reason is that it seemed so wondrous a thing that you should love a man like me, that I could hardly believe it when you were no longer before my eyes.”
At that Rodny was so well pleased that she did not want him to see how much pleased she was, and kept her eyes on her hands where they lay in his. But shortly he spoke again, and then his voice was a little down-hearted.
“Though I see,” said he, “that you did not like my gifts, since you wear them neither on your neck nor your breast nor your arm. And yet I had hoped that they would please you a little.”
“Gifts!” said Rodny. Then he began to ask questions, and it came out that she had never set eyes on the pretty things.
Hallvard was so wroth that it looked for a while as if some man would have to go down before him. But Rodny took it in quite another way.
“It is to me as though I had got the three best gifts in the world,” said she. “And I care not a whit what became of the gold so long as you remembered to send it.”
With that, she slipped off her horse and put her arms around Hallvard’s neck and kissed him; and thereafter their love ran smoothly enough.
And now all that is left to tell is how Skapti came down to the shore and began to scold Jofried, and she answered in this way:
“No more of the blame for this lies on me than on you; for it is proved by this that though you know much of men’s weaknesses, you know nothing at all about the strong parts of their natures. And now you may have your choice of two things—either you shall take me to wife and give me equal rights with yourself over your goods, or I shall go to Hallvard and tell him everything about this plan, and then you will have his wrath to bear, and you know as well as I whether you would be able to stand up under that.”