university at Upsal, according to the doctor's wishes. He
only desired, first, to pass his examination as a captain, but this
sufficed to show that he had not renounced his project of traveling.

Besides, he had another trouble which lay heavy at his heart, and for
which he saw no other remedy but absence.

Erik wished to find some pretext for leaving the doctor's house as soon
as his studies were completed; but he wished to do this without exciting
any suspicion. The only pretext which he could think of was this plan of
traveling. He desired to do this because of the aversion of Kajsa, the
doctor's niece. She lost no occasion of showing her dislike; but he
would not at any price have had the excellent man suspect this state of
affairs between them. His relations toward the young girl had always
been most singular. In the eyes of Erik during these seven years as well
as on the first day of his arrival at Stockholm, the pretty little fairy
had always been a model of elegance and all earthly perfections. He had
bestowed on her his unreserved admiration, and had made heroic efforts
to overcome her dislike, and become her friend.

But Kajsa could not make up her mind calmly to see this "intruder," as
she called Erik, take his place in the doctor's home, be treated as an
adopted son, and become a favorite of her uncle and his friends. The
scholastic success of Erik, his goodness and his gentleness, far from
making him pleasing in her eyes, were only new motives of jealousy.

In her heart Kajsa could not pardon the young man for being only a
fisherman and a peasant. It seemed to her that he brought discredit upon
the doctor's household and on herself, who, she liked to believe,
occupied a very high position in the social scale.

But it was worse when she learned that Erik was even less than a
peasant, only a child that had been picked up. That appeared to her
monstrous and dishonorable. She thought that such a child had a lower
place in society than a cat or a dog; she manifested these sentiments by
the most disdainful looks, the most mortifying silence, and the most
cruel insults. If Erik was invited with her to any little social
gathering at the house of a friend, she would positively refuse to dance
with him. At the table she would not answer anything he said, nor pay
any attention to him. She tried on all occasions, and in every possible
way, to humiliate him.

Poor Erik had divined the cause of this uncharitable con