e.

Martens soon found that if he wished to educate Madeleine to be a
pattern wife after his own heart, he must get her away from Sandsgaard.
With the same object in view, he sought, and standing as well as he did
with those in authority, soon obtained, a living at some distance in the
country; and, a year after his betrothal, he celebrated his marriage at
his mother's house.

After his ride along the shore, George Delphin suffered from a dangerous
attack of inflammation of the lungs. His illness lasted so long that a
substitute had to be provided for the time in the magistrate's office;
and as soon as he recovered sufficiently to write, he informed the
magistrate that he wished to resign his situation. The magistrate
accepted his resignation with alacrity, for George Delphin had never
been the kind of man he liked.

During the whole time of the illness, Fanny was in a state of nervous
excitement. To visit the invalid, or put herself in any sort of
communication with him, was quite out of the question. She had thus to
content herself with such news as she could pick up, either accidentally
or through Morten; but she dared not ask as many questions as she could
have wished. One day when she was standing before the glass, she
discovered three small wrinkles at the corner of her left eye. When she
laughed, they improved her; but when she was serious, they made her look
old. Nothing seemed to suit her any longer, not even mourning, in which
she had always looked her best. Fanny, in fact, suffered as much as she
was capable of suffering, and one day she received a note from him, in
which he said adieu.

"I start to-night, and say farewell thus to spare us both a painful
parting. Farewell!" This was all the note contained.

Her lovely complexion turned almost to an ashen grey, but only for a
moment. The whole night she lay awake, listening to her husband, who lay
breathing heavily by her side; but the next morning found her sitting by
her window, as calm and bright as ever. Many of her friends, as she had
expected, came to visit her, but she disappointed them all. Delphin's
sudden departure was a subject of conversation in which she joined,
jesting and laughing as usual. Her friends could perceive no change in
her, and yet how much scandal had been talked about her and Delphin! It
was a lesson to people to keep their tongues to themselves.

But Fanny herself noticed several changes in her appearance, and was
reminded o