the wedding.

Since that Sunday in the spring Tony had never cast eyes on the
gamekeeper. But when she and Sepper were cutting oats in the Molda[7]
the gamekeeper came by and said, "Does't cut well?" Tony started, and
plied her sickle busily without answering. Sepper said, "Thank you,"
knelt upon a sheaf and twisted down the tie with all his might,--as if
he were wringing the gamekeeper's neck. The gamekeeper passed on.

It happened that Babbett's and Caspar's wedding came off just three
days before that on which Sepper was obliged to go to the military. So
he made up his mind to enjoy himself once for all, and kept his word.
In almost every house where Caspar and his friend left the invitations,
somebody said, "Well, Sepper, your turn will come next." And he smiled
affirmatively.

At the wedding Sepper was as happy as a horse in clover. He enjoyed the
foretaste of his coming bliss. When the dance began he climbed up to
the musicians and bespoke them for his wedding, with two additional
trumpeters: he belonged to the Guard, and therefore thought himself
entitled to more trumpets than others.

But in the evening a new apparition crossed his path and changed the
color of his thoughts. The gamekeeper came to the dance, and the first
one he asked to dance with him was Tony.

"Engaged," answered Sepper for Tony.

"The lassie can speak for herself, I guess," replied the gamekeeper.

"You and I will dance the next hop-waltz together," said Tony, taking
Sepper's hand. But she turned around toward the gamekeeper once more
before the hop-waltz began. The next waltz Tony danced with the
gamekeeper, while Sepper sat down at the table and made up his mind not
to stir another foot that evening, and to forbid Tony to dance any
more. But Babbett came and asked him to dance. This was the bride's
privilege, and Sepper could not refuse. Of course the dance was a cover
for a round lecture. "I don't know what to make of you at all," said
she: "that gamekeeper seems to have driven every bit of sense out of
your head. It'll be your fault and nobody else's if Tony should ever
come to like him. She wouldn't have had a thought of him this many a
day; but, if you go on teasing her about him this way, what can she do
but think of him? And with always thinking about him, and wondering
whether he likes her or not, she might get to like him at last, after
all, for he does dance a little better than you, that's a fact: you
couldn't reverse wal