"I deem," she said, "that she whom ye have held of least account
is the noblest of the twain."
He answered: "I too have misdoubted me, that she is little like a
bondwoman, and when we first met, in seemly wise she greeted
noble men. Lo now, we will make trial of the thing."
So on a time as men sat at the drink, the king sat down to talk
with the women, and said: --
"In what wise do ye note the wearing of the hours, whenas night
grows old, if ye may not see the lights of heaven?"
Then says the bondwoman, "This sign have I, that whenas in my
youth I was wont to drink much in the dawn, so now when I no
longer use that manner, I am yet wont to wake up at that very
same tide, and by that token do I know thereof."
Then the king laughed and said, "Ill manners for a king's
daughter!" And therewith he turned to Hjordis, and asked her
even the same question; but she answered --
"My father erst gave me a little gold ring of such nature, that
it groweth cold on my finger in the day-dawning; and that is the
sign that I have to know thereof.
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