ook, like that of the dogs in the picture
that sit in the judgment-seat.

"She's English," said one. "No, Irish. No, Manx--whatever that means.
Anyway, she's foreign, and can't speak a word that anybody can
understand. So Mother Helda says, and she's a worthy woman, you know,
and cleans the floors at the Palace."

"But they say she's a sweet lady for all that," said the other; and
just then a young student at their back pushed his laughing face
between their shoulders and said,

"Who? Old Mother Helda?"

"Mother Helda be bothered. The lady. And her father has been wrecked
in coming to her wedding, too! Poor old man, what a pity! The
Governor sent my son Oscar with twenty of Loega's men to Stappen to
look for me. That was a fortnight ago. I expect him back soon."

"They might have waited until he came. Why didn't they?"

"Oscar?" said the laughing face between them.

"The father, goose. Poor lady, how lonely she must feel! But then the
old Bishop is so good to everybody."

"Well, he deserves a good wife."

"The old Bishop?" said the student, shaking his sides.

"The young Governor, I'm talking of; and don't be so quick in
snapping folks up, Jon Arnason. He's the best Governor we ever had.
And what a change from the last one. Why, he doesn't mind speaking to
anyone. Just think, only yesterday he stopped me and said, 'Good
morning;' he said, 'your son won't be long away now,' quite humble
and homelike."

"Well, God bless him--and her too, foreign or not--and may they live
long----"

"And have a good dozen," added the laughing voice behind them.

And then all three laughed together.

By this time the organ which had been silent for a little while, had
burst forth afresh, and though its strains were loud and jubilant,
yet to Jason they seemed to tell the story of his sorrow and all the
trouble of his days. He tried not to listen, and to pass the moments
in idly watching the swaying throng, whose heads beneath his own rose
and fell like a broken sea. But his mind _would_ be active, and the
broad swell of the music floated into his soul and consumed it. "Can
it be possible," he thought, "that I intend to smite him down when he
comes through that doorway by her side? And yet I love her--and he is
my brother."

Still the organ rang out over graveyard and people, and only by an
effort of will could Jason hold back his tears. "Man! man!" he cried
in his heart, "call it by its true name--not judgment, but murder