es
became discernible at last in the far distance, there was not a
palm-clad promontory in all the southern seas that could compare with
it, he thought; and the pleasure he experienced was only dashed by the
apprehension of what he might have to learn about Elizabeth on landing.

They were hailed shortly after by a pilot boat from Arendal, and he
arrived there after dark the same evening, and went to Madam Gjers's
unpretending lodging-house until the morning.

The following day was Sunday. And as he listened to the bells ringing,
and watched the townspeople, great and small, going decorously up the
street in their best clothes to church--most of them he recognised, and
among them Elizabeth's old aunt going up by herself, with her psalm-book
and her white folded handkerchief in her hand--an indescribable feeling
came over him, and his eyes filled so that he could hardly see. Here
passing before him were all the gentleness and the purity that he had
once believed in, when his young faith had as yet received no shock, and
when he was as joyous and credulous as the rest; and he could not resist
the temptation of joining the stream, trusting to the alteration in his
appearance to save him from recognition.

Beside him, almost, there walked a respectable family--he knew well who
they were--with a couple of handsome daughters, in light dresses, who
had grown up since he last saw them, and a younger brother whom he did
not remember. The foreign, black-bearded sailor, with his fine cloth
clothes, and his patent gold watch-chain, seemed to excite their
curiosity; while he on his side was thinking how they would fly from
him, as if a wolf had suddenly appeared in their midst, if they had any
conception of the life that he had been leading for years, half-a-day of
which would have filled them with more horror than they had ever
imagined. They would not understand it if it was described to them, and
the description would be too foul for their ears. As he quietly followed
the stream up the hill, it seemed as if all the sunny houses in his
beautiful native town were crying out against him, and asking whether it
was possible that a man from the Stars and Stripes could be permitted to
go to church as well as other people; and on entering the building he
had to summon up all his self-command--he had a feeling that he was
violating the sanctity of the place.

He took his seat in the last pew close to the door, and watched the
people p