to the white, glittering table. He felt sure then that
Margaret would join the party, but she did not. Was it a slight to
her? That Margaret Vedder personally should be slighted affected him
not, but that Jan's wife was neglected, that made him angry. He
turned away, and in turning glanced upward. There was a dim light in a
corner room up stairs. He felt sure that there Margaret was sitting,
watching Jan's boy. He loitered round until he heard the moving of
chairs and the bustle incident to the leave-taking of guests. No
access of light and no movement in Margaret's room had taken place.
She had made no sign, and no one remembered her. But never had Snorro
felt so able to forgive her as at that hour.

CHAPTER X.

SWEET HOME.

"On so nice a pivot turns
True wisdom; here an inch, or there, we swerve
From the just balance; by too much we sin,
And half our errors are but truths unpruned."

If Margaret were neglected, it was in the main her own fault; or, at
least, the fault of circumstances which she would not even try to
control. Between her and Suneva there had never been peace, and she
did not even wish that there should be. When they were scarcely six
years old, there was rivalry between them as to which was the better
and quicker knitter. During their school days, this rivalry had found
many other sources from which to draw strength. When Margaret
consented to go to Edinburgh to finish her education, she had felt
that in doing so she would gain a distinct triumph over Suneva Torr.
When she came back with metropolitan dresses, and sundry trophies in
the way of Poonah painting and Berlin wool work, she held herself
above and aloof from all her old companions, and especially Suneva.

Her conquest of Jan Vedder, the admiration and hope of all the young
girls on the Island, was really a victory over Suneva, to whom Jan had
paid particular attention before he met Margaret. Suneva had been the
bitterest drop in all her humiliation concerning her marriage
troubles. In her secret heart she believed Suneva had done her best to
draw her old lover from his quiet home to the stir and excitement of
her father's drinking-room. If Peter had searched Shetland through, he
could not have found a second wife so thoroughly offensive to his
daughter.

And apart from these personal grievances, there were pecuniary ones
which touched Margaret's keenest sensibilities. Peter Fae's house had
long been t