now if Morten saw anything or not, and whether his confidence
in his wife, or his own bad conscience, caused his indifference.

Rachel passed the Monday and Tuesday in an anxious state of mind.
Something, she thought, must happen. The feeling against Johnsen was
strong, but it must surely take some more decided form. She knew that he
would come to see her, happen what might, and she expected him.

CHAPTER XII.

Fanny and Madeleine had accepted an invitation for the Wednesday in the
same week. Rachel had simply refused without giving a reason, but people
were now used to her manner.

"I have such a dreadful headache!" sighed Fanny, as she came into
Madeleine's room, who was getting ready to go out. Madeleine had come
into the town on the Sunday evening.

"Poor Fanny!" said Madeleine, feelingly; "have you got that headache
again?"

"Yes, it came just as if it were on purpose, at the very moment I was
going to change my dress. Oh, how bad it is!"

"I think you have had a great many of these headaches lately, Fanny; you
ought to speak to the doctor."

"It is no use," answered Fanny, endeavouring to cool her forehead by
pressing a little hand-glass against it. "The only thing that does me
any good is fresh air and perfect quiet. Oh, the noise here from the
street is dreadful! To think that I have to spend the whole evening in a
hot room! I can't bear it; it will be too much for me!"

"You shan't go out at all when you are so unwell," said Madeleine,
decidedly. "I will make such a nice excuse for you."

"Oh, if I could only stop at home, or, even better still, if I could get
to Sandsgaard; it is so quiet there!" said Fanny, with a sigh.

"Yes, that is just what you shall do," cried Madeleine. "You take the
carriage when it has left me, and drive out there. I believe it is
clearing up, and we shall have a lovely quiet moonlight evening."

"Yes; I don't much mind what the weather is," said Fanny, with a sickly
smile. "But do you think it will do for me--"

"You need not trouble about that. I will make such charming and
plausible excuses for you, that you will really feel quite rewarded for
all the trouble you have had in teaching me the ways of society. Look
now, I will begin like this;" and Madeleine, who had now got on her
dress, curtsied and smiled, and began a most pathetic story about dear
Fanny's dreadful headache. Fanny began to laugh, until it gave her head
so much pain that she could not help cry