, dreamy blue eyes, at the last receding shores
of the Altenfjord--eyes that smiled and yet were tearful.

"Are you sorry, Thelma?" asked Errington gently, as he passed one arm
tenderly round her. "Sorry to trust your life to me?"

She laid her little hand in playful reproach against his lips.

"Sorry! you foolish boy! I am glad and grateful! But it is saying
good-bye to one's old life, is it not? The dear old home!--and poor
Sigurd!"

Her voice trembled, and bright tears fell.

"Sigurd is happy,"--said Errington gravely, taking the hand that
caressed him, and reverently kissing it. "Believe me, love,--if he had
lived some cruel misery might have befallen him--it is better as it is!"

Thelma did not answer for a minute or two--then she said
suddenly--"Philip,--do you remember where I saw you first?"

"Perfectly!" he answered, looking fondly into the sweet upturned face.
"Outside a wonderful cavern, which I afterwards explored."

She started and seemed surprised. "You went inside?--you saw--?"

"Everything!"--and Philip related his adventure of that morning, and his
first interview with Sigurd. She listened attentively--then she
whispered softly--

"My mother sleeps there, you know,--yesterday I went to take her some
flowers for the last time. Father came with me--we asked her blessing.
And I think she will give it, Philip--she must know how good you are and
how happy I am."

He stroked her silky hair tenderly and was silent. The _Eulalie_ had
reached the outward bend of the Altenfjord, and the station of Bosekop
was rapidly disappearing. Olaf Gueldmar and the others came on deck to
take their last look of it.

"I shall see the old place again, I doubt not, long before you do,
Thelma, child," said the stout old _bonde_, viewing, with a keen, fond
glance, the stretch of the vanishing scenery. "Though when once you are
safe married at Christiania, Valdemar Svensen and I will have a fine
toss on the seas in the _Valkyrie_,--and I shall grow young again in the
storm and drift of the foam and the dark wild waves! Yes--a wandering
life suits me--and I am not sorry to have a taste of it once more.
There's nothing like it--nothing like a broad ocean and a sweeping
wind!"

And he lifted his cap and drew himself erect, inhaling the air like an
old warrior scenting battle. The others listened, amused at his
enthusiasm,--and, meanwhile, the Altenfjord altogether disappeared, and
the _Eulalie_ was soon plunging in a r