"Did Gertrude go?"
"Yes; she tried to reason with Gunhild, but Gunhild wouldn't listen."
"I have not seen Gunhild at our house," said Ingmar thoughtfully.
"No, for now she is back with her parents. It seems that when Gertrude left Gunhild she met Hellgum. 'There stands the one who is to blame for all this,' she thought, and then she went straight up to him, and gave him a tongue lashing. She wouldn't have minded striking him."
"Oh, Gertrude can talk all right," said Ingmar approvingly.
"She told Hellgum that he had behaved like a heathen warrior and not as a Christian preacher, in skulking about like that in the night and abducting a young girl."
"What did Hellgum say to that?"
"He stood quietly listening for a while; then he said as meek as you please that she was right, he had acted in haste. And in the afternoon he took Gunhild back to her parents and made everything right again."
Ingmar glanced up at the old man with a smile. "Gertrude is splendid," he said, "and Hellgum is a fine fellow, even if he is a little eccentric."
"So that's the way you take it, eh? I thought you would wonder why
Hellgum had given in like that to Gertrude."