Garvloit's house put forth
all its splendour. Dress suits from former days of better circumstances
were brought out from old boxes for the occasion; and Madam Garvloit
appeared in a green-silk dress of stiff brocade, with a massive brooch,
and a huge gilt comb that shone over her forehead like a piece of a
crown. Garvloit, too, did his best; but his utmost endeavour had only
availed to adapt one article of his grandfather's state dress to his
corpulent person--a gold-laced waistcoat namely, which was much too long
for him, and which appeared to occasion him extreme discomfort in the
region of the buttons.

A couple of old friends of the family and the children went with the
pair to church, and also the skipper's son from Vlieland, over whose
round soft cheeks there trickled a regretful tear or two as the bride,
with her myrtle wreath and long white veil, was led up to the altar by
Garvloit. Elizabeth wore that day a pair of particularly handsome shoes
with silver buckles, which Salve, with glad surprise, recognised as the
ones he had presented to her many years before.

There was an entertainment provided by Madam Garvloit when they returned
from church, which was not a very lively affair, the Garvloits not being
in spirits at the prospect of losing Elizabeth, and she, notwithstanding
all her present happiness, being really sorry to go.

A couple of hours after, they were on their way to Puermurende, and later
on in the mellow evening, were standing together on the deck of the
Apollo, as she was being towed up the wide canal. The bells were ringing
out from Alkmar as they passed--ringing a sweet old chime of other days;
and as they stood together by the ship's side, silently listening to the
changing tones from the tower as they mingled in the air above them,
they pleased themselves with the thought that it was their wedding
chime.

CHAPTER XXI.

In a small house at Tonsberg, at the entrance to the beautiful
Christiana fjord, the first summer of their married life passed without
a cloud upon its sky. The house and all about it, with its flowers in
each window, were a model of neatness and Dutch polish; and with
Elizabeth herself as a centre to it all, it was no wonder that Salve's
crew found him indifferent to all weathers when it was a question of
getting home.

The charming young skipper's wife, however, during her husband's
frequent absences, had attracted the notice of some of the leading
families of