f which was bitter in his mouth,--Alina entered,
and busied herself about this and that, murmuring all the time to
herself--"Strange! incredible! What things one sees! Who would have
thought it?"

Peregrine, whose heart beat so strongly that he could bear it no
longer, asked, "What is so strange, dear Alina?"

"All manner of things! all manner of things!" replied the old woman,
laughing cunningly, while she went on with her occupation of setting
the rooms to rights. Peregrine's breast was ready to burst, and he
involuntarily exclaimed, in a tone of languishing pain,--"Ah! Alina!"

"Yes, Mr. Tyss, here I am; what are your commands?" replied Alina,
spreading herself out before Peregrine, as if in expectation of his
orders.

Peregrine stared at the copper face of the old woman, and all his fears
were lost in the disgust which filled him on the sudden. He asked in a
tolerably harsh tone,--

"What has become of the strange lady who was here yesterday evening?
Did you open the door for her? Did you look to a coach for her, as I
ordered? Was she taken home?"

"Open doors!" said the old woman with an abominable grin, which she
intended for a sly laugh--"Look to a coach! taken home!--There was no
need of all this:--the fair damsel is in the house, and won't leave the
house for the present."

Peregrine started up in joyful alarm; and she now proceeded to tell him
how, when the lady was leaping down the stairs in a way that almost
stunned her, Mr. Swammer stood below, at the door of his room, with an
immense branch-candlestick in his hand. The old gentleman, with a
profusion of bows, contrary to his usual custom, invited the lady into
his apartment, and she slipt in without any hesitation, and her host
locked and bolted the door.

The conduct of the misanthropic Swammer was too strange for Alina not
to listen at the door, and peep a little through the keyhole. She then
saw him standing in the middle of the room, and talking so wisely and
pathetically to the lady, that she herself had wept, though she had not
understood a single word, he having spoken in a foreign language. She
could not think otherwise than that the old gentleman had laboured to
bring her back to the paths of virtue, for his vehemence had gradually
increased, till the damsel at last sank upon her knees and kissed his
hand with great humility: she had even wept a little. Upon this he
lifted her up very kindly, kissed her forehead,--in doing which he was