Nor, to him, was it great effort to believe
that as pure water washes away all natural foulness, so water,
holy by consecration, must needs cleanse God's world from that
supernatural evil Thing. Therefore, faster than ever man's foot
had covered those leagues, he sped under the dark, still night,
over the waste, trackless snow-ridges to the far-away church,
where salvation lay in the holy-water stoup at the door. His faith
was as firm as any that wrought miracles in days past, simple as a
child's wish, strong as a man's will.
He was hardly missed during these hours, every second of which was
by him fulfilled to its utmost extent by extremest effort that
sinews and nerves could attain. Within the homestead the while,
the easy moments went bright with words and looks of unwonted
animation, for the kindly, hospitable instincts of the inmates
were roused into cordial expression of welcome and interest by the
grace and beauty of the returned stranger.
But Sweyn was eager and earnest, with more than a host's courteous
warmth. The impression that at her first coming had charmed him,
that had lived since through memory, deepened now in her actual
presence. Sweyn, the matchless among men, acknowledged in this
fair White Fell a spirit high and bold as his own, and a frame so
firm and capable that only bulk was lacking for equal strength.
Yet the white skin was moulded most smoothly, without such
muscular swelling as made his might evident.
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