"Yes," answered the old woman. "As I stood at work on the quay there came a little maid I had never seen before, and brought me word that you begged me to go home." "How did this maid look?" asked Elsalill. "I heeded her not so closely that I can tell you how she looked," said the old woman. "But one thing I marked; she went so lightly upon the snow that not a sound was heard." When Elsalill heard this she turned very pale and said: "Then it must have been an angel from heaven who brought you the message and led you home." II Another time Sir Archie sat in Torarin's cabin and talked with Elsalill. There was no one beside them; they talked gaily together and were very cheerful. Sir Archie was telling Elsalill that she must go home with him to Scotland. There he would build her a castle and make her a fine lady. He told her she should have a hundred serving-maids to wait upon her, and she should dance at the court of the King. Elsalill sat silently listening to every word Sir Archie said to her, and she believed them all. And Sir Archie thought that never had he met a damsel so easy to beguile as Elsalill. Suddenly Sir Archie ceased speaking and looked down at his left hand. "What is it, Sir Archie? Why do you say no more?" asked Elsalill. Sir Archie opened and closed his hand convulsively. He turned it this way and that. "What is it, Sir Archie?" asked Elsalill. "Does your hand pain you on a sudden?" Then Sir Archie turned to Elsalill with a startled face and said: "Do you see this hair, Elsalill, that is wound about my hand? Do you see this lock of fair hair?" When he began to speak the girl saw nothing, but ere he had finished she saw a coil of fine, fair hair wind itself twice about Sir Archie's hand. And Elsalill sprang up in terror and cried out: "Sir Archie, whose hair is it that is bound about your hand?" Sir Archie looked at her in confusion, not knowing what to say. "It is real hair, Elsalill, I can feel it. It lies soft and cool about my hand. But whence did it come?" The maid sat staring at his hand, and it seemed that her eyes would fall out of her head. "So was it that my foster sister's hair was wound about the hand of him who murdered her," she said. But now Sir Archie burst into a laugh. He quickly drew back his hand. "Why," said he, "you and I, Elsalill, we are frightening ourselves like little children. It was nothing more than a bright sunbeam falling through the window."