had time to see more of Elsa than usual, and
when she was with young companions. There is something about her as if
her pleasure were the most important thing to everybody, and she rather
thought nobody was quite equal to herself."

It is possible that these peculiarities had become Elsa's by
inheritance, as her father was not without his own tendencies in that
direction--a fact of which he was naturally unconscious.

He went on: "You have been a good girl, Karin, and I am pleased with
you. Elsa needs now some one who has a right to take her more steadily
in hand."

There was a pause, and the tears sprang to Karin's eyes. Was she to be
dismissed, when she felt almost as much at home in her master's house as
his daughter herself?

"Yes, you have been a good girl, Karin, and you deserve your reward. You
never ought to leave my home. What Elsa needs, though, is a mother's
care. She needs one who with a mother's name will have a strong right to
her respect and her affection."

He paused a moment. Karin, not knowing what else to do, dropped a
courtesy, and waited for him to go on. He got up, blushed, took a few
steps on the piazza, and then turned and said abruptly: "I am going to
be married, and I want you to tell Elsa about it. Tell her that it is
the lady whom the children called 'aunty' there in the country--their
mother's sister. She is willing to marry me. I never thought to get such
a good wife." And Possessionaten Bilberg looked humble, for perhaps the
first time in his life.

"She is not like me in many things," he continued, as if pleased with
his subject. "She is pious--something I don't quite understand, but it
makes me sure she will be a good mother to Elsa. I really believe she
would hardly have taken me if she had not longed to get my child under
her care," said Possessionaten, with another unwonted attack of
humility. "Please tell Elsa at once," he said, and sat down again, to
indicate that the interview was over.

In a few moments Elsa came flying along the piazza, and surprised her
father by taking a seat on his knee and putting her arms round his
neck. "Papa! papa!" she said, "how could you think of doing anything
that would please me so much?"

"Your own mother loved her, Elsa, and so I am sure she is the right kind
of a woman, and that you will be happy together."

Possessionaten had spoken in a matter-of-fact sort of way, and Elsa went
upstairs in a less ecstatic mood than when she came down