things?"

"What life demands of you and what you are accustomed to."

Mary felt that what Mrs. Dawes had just said expressed her father's
wish. She knew that what gave him most anxiety was her future, and that
a marriage with Joergen which ensured Uncle Klaus's protection would give
him a feeling of security. It oppressed her to think how little regard
to her father's wishes she had hitherto shown.

These days, with their deliberations, struck her as resembling the
recitative in an opera, the part which connects two important actions.
Now that the season was advancing, she felt like a captive when she
looked out across the bay. When she stood on the hill, watching autumn's
stern entrance in foaming breakers, she knew that it was bringing
imprisonment for the winter. Her spirit stirred in rebellion; she was
accustomed to something so different.

Something in her blood stirred too. Her tranquillity was gone. As a
memory, Joergen was not repellent. The atmosphere which he brought with
him was actually sympathetic.

That her father had been incapacitated by an apoplectic shock, that
Joergen had been on the spot when this occurred, that he was her father's
choice--was there not something in this that linked them together? Was
there not fate in it?

To make her appearance at Joergen's side in Stockholm,[C] and afterwards
to be sent farther afield--could there be a more fitting conclusion to
her life of travel, a better opportunity of turning to advantage all
that she had learned during the course of it?

[C] The Foreign Office of Sweden was at that time the Foreign
Office of Norway also.

Uncle Klaus should help them--help them generously. She knew her power
over Uncle Klaus.

"After all, Aunt Eva dear," she said one day when she sat chatting
beside Mrs. Dawes's bed; "I think you may write to Joergen."

* * * * *

Mary herself was standing on the pier when the steamer came in. It was
Saturday afternoon; all that could do so were leaving town to enjoy the
last days of autumn in the country. The weather was beautiful; in the
south of Norway it can be so till far on in September. Mary was dressed
in blue and carried a blue parasol, which she waved to Joergen and some
of her girl friends who were standing beside him. All on board moved
towards the gangway to watch the meeting.

Joergen felt, as soon as he reached her side, that he must be cautious.
He divined that she had