it; if there be any thing wanting, and you desire to have it, only
speak the word, and it shall be yours at once."

She had never given much heed to these words. Of what good was it all
to her? Could anything recompense her for her marred life?

It was the sight of her mother busying herself in her room that
roused her, and henceforth she became alive to her position.

Before long the system of joint purchasing for the two households,
which Madame Torvestad had at first managed, was brought to an end.
Sarah undertook to manage her own affairs. Gently, but inexorably,
the mother's rule was restricted to her own apartments.

Sarah was intelligent and well trained; she inherited all her
mother's aptitude for rule and order. Hitherto she had never had an
opportunity of manifesting it at home, her mother being always over
her, and she had toiled like a servant girl, faithful and upright,
yet with no other interest for the things under her charge than that
they should not be injured.

Now, however, she had her own household, was her own mistress, and
had, moreover, ampler means at her command than her mother had.

The rich Madame Worse, as people began to term her in the shops, was,
in fact, a very different person, and much more important than the
widow Torvestad. It was a consciousness of this that first gave Sarah
a new interest in life, and tended to thaw some of that frigidity
which had begun to settle upon her. When the first and the worst
period was over, she buried her hopes and her youth as well as she
could, giving herself up to prayer and study, whilst, at the same
time, the management of her household affairs prevented her from
sinking into melancholy.

This change was much to the advantage of Jacob Worse. The icy
coldness with which she had treated him from the first had been
occasionally apparent to him in the midst of his happiness; but now
her behaviour was different--never indeed affectionate, scarcely even
friendly, but she reconciled herself to him, made his home
comfortable, and interested herself in his business affairs.

Jacob Worse explained them to her, and was never weary of expressing
his surprise that women could show so much intelligence. It was not
long before she was able to give him good advice, and it ended by his
consulting her about everything.

In this way the year passed on, and the winter began. Sarah was as
regular as formerly at the meetings, and, when at her mother's, she
oft