d of beginning his story, Lauritz suddenly replaced his
glass on the shelf, seized the captain's, put it away also, slammed
to the cupboard, and seated himself on a wooden chair near the door.

Worse thought the lad was going out of his senses; but before his
wrath had time to break out, there was a knock at the door, and
Madame Torvestad entered.

Lauritz had seen her pass the window, and respect for her was so
thoroughly ingrained in him, that her appearance drove everything
else out of his head.

Anything rather than that she should see they were drinking. Even
Worse himself would not have wished Madame Torvestad to find him
hob-nobbing with the young man, and comprehending the position of
affairs, he winked amiably at Lauritz, as he conducted Madame
Torvestad to a seat upon the sofa.

She wore a black silk cloak, a dark grey hat with a wide brim, and a
broad satin ribbon under her chin.

Her dress and bearing gave the impression of solid wellbeing, and
steadfast purpose.

The somewhat full double chin, and the carriage of her head, gave her
a masterful look. In this she differed from others of her sect, who
strove to convey the idea of humility both outwardly and inwardly.
Moreover, it had become the fashion among the Haugians of the west
country to speak in a soft, lisping tone.

Madame Torvestad never allowed herself to forget that she was the
widow of an elder among the Brethren, and it was her ambition to
constitute both herself and her house a centre of the religious
movement. She therefore thought much of her own small meetings, which
were half-religious, half-social. For the same reason she took in
lodgers, although as far as money was concerned there was no need to
do so.

Lauritz had not been admitted upon these grounds; she took him at the
earnest request of friends in Flekkefjord. Generally, her lodgers
were spiritually minded young men, often wandering lay-preachers, who
came and went, remaining a few days among the Brethren in order to
exhort and edify one another.

By such means as these, Madame Torvestad had succeeded in making her
house a place of rendezvous for the Brethren in the town, and herself
one of its most influential matrons, one whom the elders often
consulted.

She was always a little less austere with Skipper Worse than with
others, either because she had been his tenant for so many years, or
that she considered such behaviour more likely to win him over, or
perhaps, for s