ess, and then went out hastily, giving to the young Baron,
who, in his wild joy, had fallen upon his wolf's-skin like a dog, a
tolerably heavy cuff. A few minutes afterwards, as he cast from his
sledge a glance and a hand-greeting to his wife and daughters at the
library window, they saw with astonishment that his eyes were full of
tears.

But the joy of the present, and the promises of the future, filled the
hearts of those who remained behind to overflowing, and the evening
passed amid gaiety and pleasure.

Baron L. drank punch with the domestics till both he and they were quite
wrong in the head, and all Louise's good moral preaching was like so
many water-drops on the fire. Henrik was nobly gay, and the beaming
expression of his animated, beautiful head, reminded the beholder of an
Apollo.

"Where now are all your gloomy forebodings?" whispered Leonore, tenderly
joyful; "you look to me as if you could even embrace Stjernhoek."

"The whole world!" returned Henrik, clasping his sister to his breast,
"I am so happy!"

And yet there was one person in the house who was happier than Henrik,
and that was his mother. When she looked on the beautiful, glorified
countenance of her son, and thought of that which he was and on what he
would become; when she thought on the laurels which would engarland his
beloved head, on the future which awaited her favourite, her summer
child--Oh! then bloomed the high summer of maternal joy in her breast,
and she revelled in a nameless happiness--a happiness so great that she
was almost anxious, because it appeared to her too great to be borne on
earth!

And yet for all that--and we say it with grateful joy--the earth can
bear a great degree of happiness; can bear it for long without its
either bringing with it a curse or a disappointment. It is in stillness
and in retirement where this good fortune blooms the best, and on that
account the world knows little of it, and has little faith in it. But,
thank God! it may be abundantly found in all times and in all countries;
and it is--we whisper this to the blessed ones in order that we may
rejoice with them--it is of extremely rare occurrence when it happens in
actual life, as, for the sake of effect, it happens in books, that a
strong current of happiness carries along with it unhappiness as in a
drag-rope.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] Emilie Hoegquist and Jenny Lind are two great ornaments of the
Stockholm theatre; the first an actress, the se