ry few gentlemen nowadays, I fancy I'd
like to be one as long as I can."

Errington here interposed. "You mustn't take him seriously. Mr.
Gueldmar," he said; "he's never serious himself, I'll give you his
character in a few words. He belongs to no religious party, it's
true,--but he's a first-rate fellow,--the best fellow I know!"

Lorimer glanced at him quietly with a gratified expression on his face.
But he said nothing, for Thelma was regarding him with a most bewitching
smile.

"Ah!" she said, shaking a reproachful finger at him, "you do love all
nonsense, that I can see! You would make every person laugh, if you
could,--is it not so?"

"Well, yes," admitted George, "I think I would! But it's a herculean
task sometimes. If you had ever been to London, Miss Gueldmar, you would
understand how difficult it is to make people even smile,--and when they
do, the smile is not a very natural one."

"Why?" she exclaimed. "Are they all so miserable?"

"They pretend to be, if they're not," said Lorimer; "it is the fashion
there to find fault with everything and everybody."

"That is so," said Gueldmar thoughtfully. "I visited London once and
thought I was in hell. Nothing but rows of hard, hideously built houses,
long streets, and dirty alleys, and the people had weary faces all, as
though Nature had refused to bless them. A pitiful city,--doubly pitiful
to the eyes of a man like myself, whose life has been passed among
fjords and mountains such as these. Well, now, as neither of you are
Lutherans,--in fact, as neither of you seem to know what you are," and
he laughed, "I can be frank, and speak out as to my own belief. I am
proud to say I have never deserted the faith of my fathers, the faith
that makes a man's soul strong and fearless, and defiant of evil,--the
faith that is supposed to be crushed out among us, but that is still
alive and rooted in the hearts of many who can trace back their lineage
to the ancient Vikings as I can,--yes!--rooted firm and fast,--and
however much some of the more timorous feign to conceal it, in the tacit
acceptance of another creed, there are those who can never shake it off,
and who never desire to forsake it. I am one of these few. Shame must
fall on the man who willfully deserts the faith of his warrior-ancestry!
Sacred to me for ever be the names of Odin and Thor!"

He raised his hand aloft with a proud gesture, and his eyes flashed.
Errington was interested, but not surprised: th