self
directly. Sometimes Salve was really desperate, and would terrify her
with all kinds of threats, not against her, but against himself--and she
knew he was just the man to carry them out. It had often happened that
for some unlucky word of hers he had gone to sea again an hour after
coming home; and once in such weather that she had not the faintest hope
of ever seeing him return.

She would sit at home and weep for hours together, striving to repress
the angry feelings of resentment which would rise from time to time when
she thought how little return she received for all she gave; how less
than little her happiness was considered; and how meagre a reward for
all she had to endure were the two or three days perhaps of occasional
happy calm and sunshine in her home, when she seemed to have him with
her as he had been in the first early days of their married life, and
when he would find it as hard to tear himself away from his home again
as she knew he had often found it to return. What a heart he had in
reality! She alone knew that--the others judged him only by his hard and
harsh exterior. And how proud she was of him when she heard the others
talking of the daring things he had done, and saw how they all looked up
to him! But it was not enough. And in the dulness and loneliness of her
life out there on Merdoe, she enjoyed to the full, during these many
weary years, her woman's privilege of suffering for the man she loved.
But it was not to be so always. Brighter days--little as she now
expected them--were still in store for her.

CHAPTER XXV.

We may leave for a moment the contemplation of a domestic history
lighted up at present by such few and fitful gleams of sunshine, and
glance at the married life of another pair who have figured in this
story, and who have not been without their influence upon whatever there
may have been of tragic in its development.

The young Becks, as they were called in contradistinction to the
master's family, were now among the first people in Arendal, and kept
one of the best houses in the town, which they had ample means to do,
for the shipbuilding business brought them in a considerable annual
income. Carl Beck had lost none of his attractiveness as he grew older.
His curling black hair had now an early sprinkling of grey in it, but
was always arranged to the very best effect; and there was, people said,
such a nobleness about him (his cleverness was undisputed) that wh