hold,--the two hillocks which were railed in behind the house: but
she turned away sickening at the thought that Rolf could not even have a
grave; that that poor consolation was denied her. She looked behind her
no more; but made her way rapidly through the ravine,--the more rapidly
because she had seen a man ascending by the same path at no great
distance, and she had little inclination to be joined by a party of
wandering Laplanders, seeking a fresh pasture for their reindeer; still
less by any neighbour from the fiord, who might think civility required
that he should escort her to the seater. This wayfarer was walking at a
pace so much faster than hers, that he would soon pass; and she would
hide among the rocks beside the tarn [small lake upon a mountain] at the
head of the ravine till he had gone by.

It was refreshing to come out of the hot, steep ravine upon the grass at
the upper end of it. Such grass! A line of pathway was trodden in it
straight upwards, by those who had before ascended the mountain; but
Erica left this path, and turned to the right, to seek the tarn which
there lay hidden among the rocks. The herbage was knee-deep, and gay
with flowers,--with wild geranium, pansies, and especially with the
yellow blossoms which give its peculiar hue and flavour to the Gammel
cheese, and to the butter made in the mountain dairies of Norway.
Through this rich pasture Erica waded till she reached the tarn which
fed the stream that gambolled down the ravine. The death-cold
unfathomed waters lay calm and still under the shelter of the rocks
which nearly surrounded them. Even where crags did not rise abruptly
from the water, huge blocks were scattered; masses which seemed to have
lain so long as to have seen the springing herbage of a thousand
summers.

In the shadow of one of these blocks, Erica sank down into the grass.
There she, and her bundle, and her long lure were half-buried; and this,
at last, felt something like rest. Here she would remain long enough to
let the other wayfarer have a good start up the mountain; and by that
time she should be cool and tranquillised:--yes, tranquillised; for here
she could seek that peace which never failed when she sought it as
Christians may. She hid her face in the fragrant grass, and did not
look up again till the grief of her soul was stilled.--Then her eye and
her heart were open to the beauty of the place which she had made her
temple of worship; and she gaz