t was the cause
of her father's illness.

Everything had gone as well as possible, he replied, until they reached
Spain; but there the captain was tortured by homesickness. Nothing had
pleased him except the piety of the people. The fiery wine did not suit
him, the fare seemed unbearable, and the inability to talk with any one
except himself had irritated him to actual outbursts of rage. On the neat
Netherland ship which bore him homeward matters were better; nay, while
running into the harbour of Antwerp he had jested almost in his old
reckless manner. But when trying to descend the rope-ladder from the high
ship into the skiff in which sailors had rowed from the land, he made a
misstep with his stiff leg and fell into the boat.

A low cry of terror here escaped the lips of the deeply agitated
daughter, and Pyramus joined in her expressions of grief, declaring that
a chill still ran down his back whenever he thought of that fall. The
captain had been saved as if by a miracle. Yet the consequences were by
no means light, for when he, Pyramus, left him, he was barely able to
totter from one chair to another. A journey on horseback, the physician
said, would kill him, and a ride in a carriage over the rough roads would
also endanger his life. Several months must pass ere he could think of
returning home.

In reply to Barbara's anxious question how the impatient man bore the
inactivity imposed upon him, her visitor answered, "Rebelliously enough,
but he has already grown quieter, and my sister is fond of him and takes
the best care of him."

"Your sister?" asked Barbara abashed, holding out her hand again; but he
pretended not to notice it, and merely explained curtly that she had come
to the Netherlands with her husband. This enterprising man, like himself,
was a native of the principality of Grubenhagen in the Hartz Mountains.
At sixteen the wild fellow went out into the world to seek his fortune,
and had found it as a daring sailor. He returned a rich man to seek a
wife in his old home. Now he had gone on a voyage to the Indies, and
while his wife awaited his return she had gladly received her brother's
old comrade. Nursing him would afford her a welcome occupation during her
loneliness. Her house lacked nothing, and Barbara might comfort herself
with the knowledge that the captain would have the best possible care.

With these words he seemed about to leave her; but she stopped him with
the question, "And when the