because of his clumsy size and ugly face. One of them took
Snorro's cap off his head and flung it into the water. I was angry at
the coward, and flung him after it, nor would I let him out of the
water till he brought Snorro's cap with him. I shall never forget the
look Snorro gave me that hour. Ever since we have been close friends.
I will tell thee now how he hath repaid me for that deed."

Then Jan spoke of Margaret's return from school; of their meeting at
one Fisherman's Foy, and of their wedding at the next. All of Peter's
kindness and subsequent injustice; all of Margaret's goodness and
cruelty, all of Snorro's affection and patience he told. He made
nothing better nor worse. His whole life, as he knew and could
understand it, he laid before Lord Lynne.

"And so thou sees," he concluded, "how little to blame and how much to
blame I have been. I have done wrong and I have suffered. Yes, I
suffer yet, for I love my wife and she has cast me off. Dost thou
think I can ever be worthy of her?"

"I see, Jan, that what you said is true--in any corner of the earth
where women are, they can make men suffer. As to your worthiness, I
know not. There are some women so good, that only the angels of heaven
could live with them. That L600 was a great mistake."

"I think that now."

"Jan, life is strangely different and yet strangely alike. My
experience has not been so very far apart from yours. I was induced to
marry when only twenty-one a lady who is my inferior in rank, but who
is a very rich woman. She is a few years older than I, but she is
beautiful, full of generous impulses, and well known for her
charitable deeds."

"You are surely fortunate."

"I am very unhappy."

"Does she not love thee?"

"Alas! she loves me so much that she makes both her own and my life
miserable."

"That is what I do not understand."

"Her love is a great love, but it is a selfish love. She is willing
that I should be happy in her way, but in no other. I must give her
not only my affection, but my will, my tastes, my duties to every
other creature. My friends, horses, dogs, even this yacht, she regards
as enemies; she is sure that every one of them takes the thought and
attention she ought to have. And the hardest part is, that her noble
side only is seen by the world. I alone suffer from the fault that
spoils all. Consequently the world pities her, and looks upon me very
much as the people of Lerwick looked on you."

"And can th