"I cannot help you find your silky skin. Some man has surely stolen it. But you can stay here with me and be my wife and I will honour you and love you all my life."
"If my skin has been stolen then I have no choice but remain here. You are very kind and I am very afraid to stay alone in the mortal world."
But she sighed and was said when she thought of her brothers and sisters and her life beneath the waves.
The fisherman was sad, too, to see her suffer but he could not let her go - she was too beautiful and too gentle.
