er: you
have earned some rest for your old days; besides, your legs are not so
young as they were."

"As to my legs," cried Mrs. Worse, with a gesture of impatience, "my
legs are quite good enough for a shop-woman."

"Well, why not get a horse and carriage? You have every right to have
one."

"I took a drive once that made stir enough," answered his mother; "I
hope to take another some day, but that won't be before everything comes
right."

It was no use trying to persuade her, and so she and Samuelsen remained
in the back premises they were so fond of, and Jacob set up his
establishment in the front.

When Mrs. Worse was in her son's rooms, she used to play the fine lady
to her own great edification; but when she got him into her own
apartments, her behaviour entirely changed, and her laughter was coarse
and noisy. Her manners had really quite gone.

One Saturday afternoon Delphin came into Jacob Worse's office with some
books he had borrowed.

"Have you heard that I have bought a horse?" asked he, in a merry tone.

"No," answered Worse. "What new folly now?"

"Well, you see, I have got an idea that it will make a favourable
impression on Miss Madeleine if she sees me on horseback. Just fancy me
on a horse with a long mane and tail, like the picture of General Prim;
there!" and he went cantering round the room, and pulled up suddenly
before Worse--"there, like that: a good fierce expression. Is not that
it? I believe that will do the business."

Worse could not help laughing, although he did not think much of the
frivolous way Delphin had of paying his addresses to Madeleine.

"You are not going to ride up to Sandsgaard this morning?"

"No, not exactly; it would not do. I can't very well go up there dressed
for riding, and if I were to ride in these clothes I should look absurd.
But I thought of riding out there this evening, somewhere about seven
o'clock. Just fancy me coming in over the garden wall with a flying
salute, and lighted by the last rays of the evening sun! Why, it would
be irresistible."

"Well, I am afraid, or perhaps I ought rather to say I hope, that Miss
Madeleine will not fully appreciate your novel way of paying her your
addresses," said Worse, half-seriously.

"Ah, my most respected friend, you know very little of woman's heart;
and how should you, when your ideal is a woman who goes in for her
rights? a tall bony creature with a moustache under her nose, and
'Woman's wrongs' und