e into a home. . . . Horses, cattle, sheep, goats,
cottars--ah! it'll be grand."

Merle followed him more slowly. "But, Peer, remember you've just taken
over father's machine-shops in town."

"Pooh!" said Peer scornfully. "Do you think I can't manage to run that
village smithy and live here too! Come along, Merle." And he took her
hand and drew her into the house again.

It was useless to try to resist. He dragged her from room to room,
furnishing as he went along. "This room here is the dining-room--and
that's the big reception-room; this will be the study--that's a boudoir
for you. . . . Come now; to-morrow we'll go into Christiania and buy the
furniture."

Merle gasped for breath. He had got so far by this time that the
furnishing was complete and they were installed. They had a governess
already, and he was giving parties too. Here was the ballroom. He
slipped an arm round her waist and danced round the room with her, till
she was carried away by his enthusiasm, and stood flushed and beaming,
while all she had dreamed of finding some day out in the wide world
seemed suddenly to unfold around her here in these empty rooms. Was this
really to be her home? She stopped to take breath and to look around
her.

Late that evening Peer sat at the hotel with a note-book, working the
thing out. He had bought Loreng; his father-in-law had been reasonable,
and had let him have the place, lands and woods and all, for the
ridiculous price he had paid himself. There was a mortgage of thirty
thousand crowns on the estate. Well, that might stand as it was, for the
bulk of Peer's money was tied up in Ferdinand Holm's company.

A few days after he carried Merle off to the capital, leaving the
carpenters and painters hard at work at Loreng.

One day he was sitting alone at the hotel in Christiania--Merle was out
shopping--when there was a very discreet knock at the door.

"Come in," called Peer. And in walked a middle-sized man, of thirty or
more, dressed in a black frock-coat with a large-patterned vest, and his
dark hair carefully combed over a bald patch on the crown. He had a
red, cheery face; his eyes were of the brightest blue, and the whole man
breathed and shone with good humour.

"I am Uthoug junior," said the new-comer, with a bow and a laugh.

"Oh--that's capital."

"Just come across from Manchester--beastly voyage. Thanks, thanks--I'll
find a seat." He sat down, and flung one striped trouser-leg over the
other.