were seated
together in the old summer-house near the pond. They were generally to
be found together on these Sunday afternoons at Sandsgaard. The
opportunity for talking scandal was one not to be neglected.

Hiorth's family had been for a long time in the service of the State, a
fact of which he was not a little proud; and after his daughter's
marriage with Morten Garman, who was one of the most eligible young men
of the district, his somewhat sensitive feelings began to revolt against
the self-satisfaction which the Garman family seemed to have inherited
with their solid prosperity.

Aalbom was, therefore, not afraid to give free play to his bitter
tongue, and after a good dinner he was just in the vein for so doing.

"They are asleep," said he. "I dare bet they are both of them fast
asleep. Have you not noticed that both the Consul and his brother
disappear after dinner every Sunday?"

"Yes, I have remarked that I don't generally see them when the coffee
comes; but it is only for about a quarter of an hour," answered the
magistrate, as he brushed some cigar-ash off his coat, just where his
new North Star Order hung.

"They are not treating you properly," continued Aalbom; "especially when
Richard calls himself an _attache_, and has some pretensions to good
manners."

"Oh! well, as far as he is concerned," answered the other, "he means to
show his contempt for people in office. Richard Garman, like all people
who have led shady lives, is an ultra-Radical."

"No doubt, sir. And I am not very certain about the Consul either; he
has no respect for a cultivated intellect."

"But can you expect anything better from a man in trade?"

"A shopkeeper, you might say," whispered Aalbom, looking cautiously
around. "There, now," he added, "I declare if it is not raining! Just
what one might have expected. We had a little sunshine in the morning,
and so of course it must rain in the afternoon. What a climate! what a
country!" and, amid a torrent of ejaculations and anathemas, they both
went hurriedly round the pond, and reached the house just as the rain
began to fall in earnest.

The company generally sat downstairs when the weather was fine, in the
room with the French windows opening into the garden; but now, as it had
begun to rain, and the wind began to rustle through the flowers and the
Virginian creeper on the railings, they went upstairs.

Whether it was that the two Garmans had really wished to show their
con