chew tobacco, and after a
still longer time he had married. It was thus Per's wife who, with
numberless excuses, conducted the clergyman and his lady into the best
room. She repeated that it was not what such people were accustomed to.
While she went out to find Per, and introduce him to the strangers, the
pastor went round the room examining the curiosities it contained.
Madeleine sat gazing out of the window. The sight of Per's wife, looking
so fresh and happy, had pained her--she knew not why.

"Look here, Lena!" he cried, every time he found something of interest.

Lena was a name of his own invention, and which he had given her in
spite of all her entreaties. Lena sounded so homely, and was well suited
to a clergyman's wife; while Madeleine had a foreign, French ring, which
was quite out of place in a rectory.

In the room were several things worthy of his attention. In the first
place there were two pictures, representing Vesuvius by day, and
Vesuvius by night; then came a drawing of a coasting vessel called _The
Three Sisters of Farsund_; then Frederick VII. with his red uniform and
hook nose; and over the bed, which was heaped up with eider-downs as
high as one's head, hung a huge horn of plenty, made of white cardboard,
and on which was the motto, in gilt paper letters, "Be fruitful and
multiply," which had been given them as a wedding-present. On one end of
the chest of drawers stood a yellow canary on a red pear, and on the
other end a red bullfinch on a yellow pear. The floor was dazzlingly
clean and neatly sanded. The window-panes were small, and the glass of
different tints; while over one of the windows was nailed a board, on
which was painted in gold letters the words "_L'Esperance_," which was
the name of the vessel to which it had belonged. At length Per came in.
He held out his hand first to the pastor and then to Madeleine, and
said, "How do you do?" to both. As Madeleine touched the hard and
powerful hand, she involuntarily drew back her own, and turned away
without pronouncing the usual greeting. The words seemed to stick in her
throat.

At that moment Per's wife entered and asked him in a whisper to cut her
a few chips to make the peat fire burn more quickly, as she wished to
prepare some coffee. Per went out of the room, and the pastor followed
the prosperous little peasant woman to inspect the house.

Madeleine took a few steps to and fro in the room, and then went to the
door. As she stood