The mothers of these three girls were handsome women, and all had brought up their daughters with tender love and care, and taught them all the accomplishments which were required of maidens of high birth.
Thordis had lost her father, and she and her mother mourned his death greatly. She had a brother, a most charming and handsome fellow, whom Sigurd liked at once.
A very few days after this entertainment, Thordis, Thorana, Ragnild, and Sigurd had become fast friends, and called themselves cousins. They saw each other every day, and met often in the banqueting hall in the evening. One day Sigurd received a message from a friend, written in mystic runes, in which Thordis, whose home was elsewhere, was casually mentioned as visiting on the island, and the message also said that she held large estates in her own right. This latter part of the message did not please Sigurd, for he liked Thordis for her own sake and her charming ways.
One day, when Thordis was seated by the side of her mother, Sigurd appeared, and, after saluting them in his usual way, he said, with a laughing expression: “Cousin Thordis, I have received a message, written in mystic runes, in which your name is mentioned. It is sad news to me, indeed. I wish I had never received it.”
At these words, Thordis’s big, beautiful eyes became twice as large as they were before, and, with an inquiring and startled look, she said: “Cousin Sigurd, I insist on knowing what your friend has written, and who he is.”
“No,” said Sigurd, “you will never know who he is.”
“Then what did he say?” asked Thordis. “I insist upon knowing.”
“If you wish to know,” replied Sigurd, “I will tell you that. He wrote that you were a lovely maiden, but that you possessed great wealth in your own right; and this last part was sad news, indeed, to me. I wish I had never received the message. I never cared or knew if you were rich, and I like you for your own charming ways and for yourself, and——”
“Well,” replied Thordis, with apparently a feeling of great relief, “your friend has deceived you;” to which assertion her mother nodded assent.
“Certainly not in the first part of the message, where he says you are a charming girl,” said Sigurd.