over it, and though it was never spoken of.

All that day Jan was sulky and obstinate, and Peter came near
quarreling with him more than once. But Peter thought he knew what
was the matter, and he smiled grimly to himself as he remembered
Margaret's power of resistance. Perhaps a fellow-feeling made him
unusually patient, for he remembered that Thora had not been brought
to a state of perfect obedience until she had given him many a day of
active discomfort. He watched Jan curiously and not without sympathy,
for the training of wives is a subject of interest even to those who
feel themselves to have been quite successful.

During the first hours of the day Jan was uncertain what to do. A
trifle would have turned him either way, and in the afternoon the
trifle came. A boat arrived from Kirkwall, and two of her crew were
far-off cousins. The men were in almost as bad condition as Christian
Groat. He would not risk soiling Margaret's chair-cushions again, so
he invited them to meet him at Ragon Torr's. As it happened Margaret
had an unhappy day; many little things went wrong with her. She longed
for sympathy, and began to wish that Jan would come home; indeed she
was half inclined to go to the store, and ask him if he could not.

She opened the door and looked out. It was still snowing a little, as
it had been for a month. But snow does not lie in Shetland, and the
winters, though dreary and moist, are not too cold for the daisy to
bloom every where at Christmas, and for the rye grass to have eight or
ten inches of green blade. There was a young moon, too, and the
Aurora, in a phalanx of rosy spears, was charging upward to the
zenith. It was not at all an unpleasant night, and, with her cloak and
hood of blue flannel, a walk to the store would be easy and
invigorating.

As she stood undecided and unhappy, she saw a man approaching the
house. She could not fail to recognize the large, shambling figure. It
was Michael Snorro. A blow from his mighty hand could hardly have
stunned her more. She shut the door, and sat down sick at heart. For
it was evident that Snorro was not ill, and that Jan had deceived her.
Snorro, too, seemed to hesitate and waver in his intentions. He walked
past the house several times, and then he went to the kitchen door.

In a few minutes Elga Skade, Margaret's servant, said to her, "Here
has come Michael Snorro, and he would speak with thy husband."
Margaret rose, and went to him. He stood befor