wered the girl.

When the weather was warm, Mrs. Garman usually preferred one of the airy
rooms upstairs. She was a very fat lady, who lived in a continual state
of strife with dyspepsia. From whatever side you looked at her, she
presented a succession of smoothly rounded curves covered with shining
black silk.

It was wonderful that Mrs. Garman got so stout; it must have been, as
she herself said, "a cross" she had to bear. She seemed to eat very
little at her meals, and could not control her astonishment at the
appetites of the rest of the company. Only at times, when she was alone
in her room, she seemed to have a fancy for some little delicacy, and
Miss Cordsen used to bring her a little bit of just what happened to be
handy.

When the Consul entered her room, his wife was sitting on the sofa,
engaged in conversation with her brother-in-law.

"How are you? how are you, Christian Frederick?" said Richard, gaily.
"Here I am again!"

"You are welcome, Richard. I am charmed to see you," answered the
Consul, keeping his hands behind his back.

Richard seemed quite confused, as he generally was when he met his
brother, who sometimes could be as gay and cheerful as when they were
boys, and at others would put on his business manner, and be cold,
repellant, and so abominably precise.

"Is any one coming to dinner to-day, Caroline?" asked Consul Garman.

"Pastor Martens has announced his kind intention of introducing the new
school inspector to us," answered the lady.

"Yes, I dare say, another of your parson friends," said the Consul,
drily; "then, I'll just send the coachman with the carriage for Morten
and Fanny, and ask them to bring some young people with them: they might
find Jacob Worse, perhaps."

"What for?" answered the lady, in a tone which showed an inclination to
dispute the proposition.

"Because neither Richard nor I care to have our dinner with nothing but
a lot of parsons," answered the Consul, in a tone which brought his wife
to her senses. "And will you be so kind as to arrange with Miss Cordsen
about the dinner?"

"Oh! the dinner, the dinner!" sighed Mrs. Garman, as she left the room.
"I cannot understand how people can think so much about such trifles."

Uncle Richard followed his sister-in-law to the door, and when he turned
round after making his most polite bow, he saw his brother standing in
the middle of the room, with his legs far apart, and one hand behind his
back. With the other