Under the Glacier by Halldór Laxness

Embi: One further detail: there's been some talk in higher places about the marital status of pastor Jón Prímus. I'm not going to start interfering in that. But what causes a clergyman to attract unbecoming gossip arising out of his private life? Pastor Jón: I have no private life. Let alone secrets. What are you trying to ask? Embi: You said you had gone south to fetch your bride.

Pastor Jón: At the time I was ordained to this living thirtyfive years ago, then three years short of thirty, I knew a girl. She was one of those phenomena where it's difficult to tell whether it's a mirage or an earthly being, and that has never been possible to explain except in the light of Jón Árnason's folktales.