so I now release you from it. You are free to
go if you wish."

Sarah had said as much to her mother when they talked the matter
over. It was either because she had no objection to be rid of her
husband for a time, or because in that respect also she wished to
show herself independent of her mother.

At least this was the way in which the latter interpreted it, and it
made her reflect more and more.

Worse now became very eager to talk of all that he would do at the
fishing. Randulf thought to himself, "He has got leave."

The fishing that year was bad; the fish were unevenly dispersed, and
much on the move. The weather, also, was stormy and bad. Things did
not go well with Skipper Worse, his former luck deserted him, and, as
some thought his former daring. It was the universal opinion that
Worse was growing old.

"Ah!" said Randulf, at the club, "when so old a man gets so young a
wife, it is all up with him"; and saying this he made a movement, as
if wringing a clout and casting it from him.

Jacob Worse returned from the fishing with rheumatism, and took to
the chimney corner. It was best for him to remain at home; and in the
spring, when the _Hope_ was going on a long voyage, he himself
proposed that one of the other captains in the employ of the firm
should take command of her.

Lauritz Seehus was promoted to be mate; in the winter he had been up
to Bergen, and had passed in navigation. Before he went, he obtained
a promise for life or death from Henrietta.

Neither did Worse go to sea the next spring. He complained of
rheumatism and of pains in his stomach. The doctor could not make out
what it was, but fancied there was something wrong with his liver.

In the mean time, he became more than ever infatuated about his wife.
When his infirmities began with rheumatism and bad digestion, she
nursed him as if she had been his daughter. Her tenderness made him
doubly grateful and happy. Besides this, all the singing and reading
which went on around him produced, in the course of time and without
his observing it, a considerable effect upon him.

Jacob Worse had always thought of the Almighty as he might of Consul
Garman, as an exacting master, who was, however, forgiving and
placable, if one only kept clear of deceit and downright wickedness.

But now he learnt something very different. It was of no avail that
he had been an excellent seaman, that he had never deceived a fellow
countryman--Germans and Swede