d late, and overwhelmed
her with advice and criticism. Both Soeren and his wife were many a time
heartily tired of her; but they owed the Olsens so much.

Little by little, however, the old lady's zeal cooled down. When
the young people's house was no longer so clean, so orderly, and so
exemplary that she could plume herself upon her work, she gradually
withdrew; and when Soeren's wife once in a while came to ask her for
advice or assistance, the Sheriff's lady would mount her high horse,
until Marie ceased to trouble her. But if, in society, conversation
happened to fall upon the Sheriff's clerk, and any one expressed
compassion for his poor wife, with her many children and her miserable
income, Mrs. Olsen would not fail to put in her word with great
decision: "I can assure you it would be just the same if Marie had twice
as much to live on and no children at all. You see, she's--" and Mrs.
Olsen made a motion with her hands, as if she were squandering something
abroad, to right and left.

Marie seldom went to parties, and if she did appear, in her at least
ten-times-altered marriage dress, it was generally to sit alone in a
corner, or to carry on a tedious conversation with a similarly situated
housewife about the dearness of the times and the unreasonableness of
servant-girls.

And the young ladies who had gathered the gentlemen around them, either
in the middle of the room or wherever they found the most comfortable
chairs to stretch themselves in, whispered to each other: "How tiresome
it is that young married women can never talk about anything but
housekeeping and the nursery."

In the early days, Marie had often had visits from her many
friends. They were enchanted with her charming house, and the little
golden-locked angel had positively to be protected from their greedy
admiration. But when one of them now chanced to stray in her direction,
it was quite a different affair. There was no longer any golden-locked
angel to be exhibited in a clean, embroidered frock with red ribbons.
The children, who were never presentable without warning, were huddled
hastily away--dropping their toys about the floor, forgetting to pick
up half-eaten pieces of bread-and-butter from the chairs, and leaving
behind them that peculiar atmosphere which one can, at most, endure in
one's own children.

Day after day her life dragged on in ceaseless toil. Many a time, when
she heard her husband bemoaning the drudgery of his lot, sh