By no means." "Why," said Dalfin, with a great laugh, "it must be Gerda whom he fears! Nay, father, the lady is all kindness, and you need fear her not at all." "I may not look on the face of a lady," said the father solemnly.
"Well, you have done it unawares, and so you may as well make the best of it, as I think," answered Dalfin.

"But, without jesting, the poor lady is in sore need of shelter and hospitality, and I think you cannot refuse that.

Will you not take us to the monastery ?" "Monastery, my son?
There is none here." "Why, then, whence come you?
Are you weather bound here also ?" "Aye, by the storms of the world, my son.

We are what men call hermits." Dalfin looked at me with a rueful face when he heard that.

What a hermit might be I did not at all know, and it meant nothing to me.
I was glad enough to think that there was a roof of any sort for Gerda.
"Why, father," said my comrade, "you do not sleep on the bare ground, surely ?" "Not at all, my son.