d looked out on the pale evening sky.

Sarah got up also, and went to the cupboard, which was between the
windows, where she began to busy herself with one thing or another.

Observing that she was behind him, he turned round and went back to
his seat.

"It has been fine, warm weather to-day," he said; but his voice was
thick and strange, and, in spite of what he had drunk, his throat was
dry.

Sarah answered somewhat unintelligibly, took up the tumbler he had
used, and placed it on the sideboard, her hand shaking so that the
glass clinked as she put it down.

Hans Nilsen got up again, moving about as if he were in a stupor, and
at last stood opposite her, as if he were about to speak.

She turned her face towards him, and the light fell upon it.

His lips moved, but no sound issued forth, until at last he said:
"You are very pale."

"What do you say?" she whispered. His voice was so indistinct that
she could not understand him.

He essayed once more to speak, and then, suddenly taking her in his
arms, kissed her.

She made no attempt to release herself; but he relaxed his hold,
crying: "Lord, help us; what are we doing!"

When the door closed behind him, she hastened across the room, and
listened. She heard him stumbling along the passage, heard the house
door shut, and heard him pass by the window with a hurried step.

She turned towards the light, her hands were pressed against her
heart, the corners of her mouth quivered as with a bitter smile, and
young and vigorous though she was, she sank down upon the floor,
sobbing.

When Jacob Worse, cheerful and rather "fresh," came groping his way
home an hour later, he found his wife reading the Bible, with two
candles on the table, and the curtains drawn.

"Good evening," said he, pleasantly. "Is the little wife still
sitting up? Is it not bed-time, little Sarah?"

She continued to read, without looking up. Worse laid his hat down,
faltering a little as he crossed the floor.

"We have had a very jolly day, Sarah."

"All three?"

"Three!" exclaimed Worse, stopping short; "why, there was only
Randulf and I."

"You lie; there were three," said Sarah, calmly.

Jacob Worse was now seized with the unlucky idea that she was joking
with him.

He approached her, smiling, and with boozy eyes, in order to put his
arm round her neck.

"Hey! so you know more about it than I do. Where did you go to school
that you are so wise? Who was the third? Hey!"

"