t shall be possible, Nanna. You have my word for it. If I had been
here it would not have happened."

"I thought so. An inner voice told me that if _he_ would only come to us
all would be well again."

"I am grateful for your confidence and shall always remember it with
pleasure."

"Remember it!" exclaimed Nanna, "are you going to leave us again?"

Nanna again clasped her hands, and this action and the mournful
expression of her countenance spoke more than words could have
expressed.

"Will you miss me, Nanna?"

"Always."

"And perhaps wish we had never met?" inquired Gottlieb earnestly.

"Ah, no," replied Nanna warmly, "the remembrance of you will perhaps
work a happier future for me than I would have had without it."

"But tell me," said Gottlieb changing the subject to one less dangerous,
"why did not your sister apply to the proprietor of Almvik."

"O, she would never apply to him. She would rather allow things to take
their own course."

"Why so?"

"I know not whether I dare tell you. Papa and Magde, consider me a mere
child, yet I can understand that Mr. H---- has sought her with wrong
motives, and if I can believe my brother, Carl--"

"What then?" interrupted Gottlieb eagerly.

"Then I can believe that all of our troubles have originated in the fact
that Magde refused to give that gentleman a kiss when he requested it."

"What, did he wish to purchase a kiss?"

"Yes, for Carl's pardon," and now Nanna related every circumstance
connected with the theft of the game, in nearly the same words in which
she had heard it from Carl.

After a short season of reflection, during which he compared the
different circumstances, Gottlieb arrived at the same conclusion that
Carl had expressed to his sister; and at the same time he also fancied
that he had discovered a method for old Mr. Lonner's release, which
could not fail of success. In the meantime he merely inquired whether
Mr. Fabian H---- had visited the cottage since his discomfiture.

"I have several times observed him prowling about the premises," replied
Nanna; "he probably hoped to have an opportunity of seeing Magde alone,
which however he has never had, for even should he offer his assistance,
she would not have dared to accept it, for if she did, Ragnar would be
very angry."

When Gottlieb returned to Almvik, he learned that his worthy uncle, whom
as he before knew had left the house early that morning, was not
expected to return until lat