and thought
he could afford to stand on his dignity with any who offered to buy up
Storborg. But it was not to last.

A week later the deputation returned home with a flat refusal. Oh,
they had done the worst thing possible at the outset, in choosing
Brede Olsen as one of the men they sent--they had taken him as being
one who best could spare the time. They had found Geissler, but he had
only shaken his head and laughed. "Go back home again," he had said.
But Geissler had paid for their journey back.

Then the district was to be left to its fate?

After Aronsen had raged for a while, and grown more and more
desperate, he went up one day to Sellanraa and closed the deal. Ay,
Aronsen did. Eleseus got it for the price he had offered; land and
house and sheds, live stock and goods, for fifteen hundred _Kroner_.
True, on going through the inventory after, it was found that
Aronsen's wife had converted most of the cotton print to her own use;
but trifles of that sort were nothing to a man like Eleseus. It didn't
do to be mean, he said.

Nevertheless, Eleseus was not exactly delighted with things as they
had turned out--his future was settled now, he was to bury himself in
the wilds. He must give up his great plans; he was no longer a young
gentleman in an office, he would never be a Lensmand, not even live in
a town at all. To his father and those at home he made it appear that
he was proud at having secured Storborg at the very price he had
fixed--it would show them he knew what he was about. But that small
triumph did not go very far. He had also the satisfaction of taking
over Andresen, the chief clerk, who was thus, as it were, included in
the bargain. Aronsen had no longer any use for him, until he had a new
place going. It was a pleasant sensation to be Eleseus, when Andresen
came up begging to be allowed to stay; here it was Eleseus who was
master and head of the business--for the first time in his life.

"You can stay, yes," he said. "I shall be wanting an assistant to look
after the place when I'm away on business--opening up connections in
Bergen and Trondhjem," said he.

And Andresen was no bad man to have, as it soon proved; he was a good
worker, and looked after things well when Eleseus was away. 'Twas
only at first he had been somewhat inclined to show and play the
fine gentleman, and that was the fault of his master Aronsen. It was
different now. In the spring, when the bogs were thawed some depth,
Sive