en,
sun-bathed clouds. When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying
in a comfortable bed, and a young woman with a kind motherly face was
sitting at her side. It was all like a dream, and she made no effort to
account for what appeared so strange and unaccountable.

What she afterward heard was that a fisherman had found her in a
snow-drift on the strand, and that he had carried her home to his
cottage and had given her over to the charge of his wife. This was the
second day since her arrival. They knew who she was, but had kept the
doors locked and had told no one that she was there. She heard the story
of the good woman without emotion; it seemed an intolerable effort
to think. But on the third day, when her child was born, her mind was
suddenly aroused from its lethargy, and she calmly matured her plans;
and for the child's sake she resolved to live and to act. That same
evening there came a little boy with a bundle for her. She opened it and
found therein the clothes she had left behind, and--her brooches. She
knew that it was her sister who had sent them; then there was one who
still thought of her with affection. And yet her first impulse was to
send it all back, or to throw it into the ocean; but she looked at her
child and forbore.

A week passed, and Brita recovered. Of Halvard she had heard nothing.
One night, as she lay in a half doze, she thought she had Seen a pale,
frightened face pressed up against the window-pane, and staring fixedly
at her and her child; but, after all, it might have been merely a dream.
For her fevered fancy had in these last days frequently beguiled her
into similar visions. She often thought of him, but, strangely enough,
no more with bitterness, but with pity. Had he been strong enough to be
wicked, she could have hated him, but he was weak, and she pitied him.
Then it was that; one evening, as she heard that the American vessel was
to sail at daybreak, she took her little boy and wrapped him carefully
in her own clothes, bade farewell to the good fisherman and his wife,
and walked alone down to the strand. Huge clouds of fantastic shapes
chased each other desperately along the horizon, and now and then the
slender new moon glanced forth from the deep blue gulfs between. She
chose a boat at random and was about to unmoor it, when she saw the
figure of a man tread carefully over the stones and hesitatingly
approach her.

"Brita," came in a whisper from the strand.

"Who's t