All quiet
around us. "No, we will not sleep now," I said to the dog, "we will go
out hunting tomorrow; the red sun is shining on us, we will not go into
the mountain." ... And strange thoughts woke to life in me, and the
blood rose to my head.
Excited, yet still weak, I felt someone kissing me, and the kiss lay on
my lips. I looked round: there was nothing visible. "Iselin!" A sound in
the grass--it might be a leaf falling to the ground, or it might be
footsteps. A shiver through the woods--and I told myself it might be
Iselin's breathing. Here in these woods she has moved, Iselin; here she
has listened to the prayers of yellow-booted, green-cloaked huntsmen.
She lived out on my farm, two miles away; four generations ago she sat
at her window, and heard the echo of horns in the forest. There were
reindeer and wolf and bear, and the hunters were many, and all of them
had seen her grow up from a child, and each and all of them had waited
for her. One had seen her eyes, another heard her voice. When she was
twelve years old came Dundas. He was a Scotsman, and traded in fish, and
had many ships. He had a son. When she was sixteen, she saw young Dundas
for the first time. He was her first love...
And such strange fancies flowed through me, and my head grew very heavy
as I sat there; I closed my eyes and felt for Iselin's kiss.
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