Page:The North Star (1904).djvu/368

340 “The woman Thora, who is so infirm, she did say, when I went to carry her food, that the jarls of Jarl Erik’s court had spoken of seeking me in marriage; and, my dear Lady Aastrid, it were a sinful thought for any jarl, for my Lord Thorgills doth surely live.”

Aastrid, the abbess, was silent and thoughtful a moment. Then she asked, “What other infirm person dost thou visit?”

“There is an old palsied woman, named Ingrid, who dwells with Thora. The people do say she was a sorceress. She is the mother of the bride of King Olaf, who tried to slay him. She hath lost all her estates, and like Thora she is poor and ailing.”

“I will make a portion of the convent into a hospice, and thou, Maidoch, canst care for thy sick, as thou so lovest this charity, besides thy teaching of the little ones. All thy work thou shalt find within the cloister until Lord Thorgills’ return; for it were not well for thee to journey through Nidaros, where dwell so many wild jarls of Erik’s heathen court.”

Aastrid began at once to have a portion of the convent prepared for the reception of the sick poor. Maidoch had gone to Thora’s little home to apprise her of the plans of the abbess for her comfort. It would have been almost impossible to have recognized in the poorly clad invalid, thin, wasted, and feeble, the once beautiful and haughty lady of the mansion at Rimul. After Earl Haakon’s death, Olaf Tryggevesson had allowed Thora to retain her