hear of it--that she shall," she repeated,
excitedly, striking one hand into the other with a loud smack--"she
shall hear what fine faith you have in her."

"Dear mother Kirstine! I didn't mean any harm," he said, entreatingly,
feeling as if a weight had been taken off his heart--"only please don't
tell Elizabeth."

"You may depend upon it I will."

"Mother Kirstine!" he said, in a low voice, and looking down, "I brought
a dress with me for her that I had bought in Boston. And then I heard
all this, and I couldn't contain myself." He said nothing about the
rings.

"So!" rejoined the old woman after a pause, during which she had
examined him through her half-closed eyes, and in a somewhat milder
tone; "so you brought a dress for her! and at the same time you come
running up here in the middle of the night to tell me that she has
become a common baggage for the lieutenant,"--and her anger rose again.

"But, Mother Kirstine, I don't believe a word of it."

"It wasn't to tell me that, I suppose, you came up here in such haste,
my lad."

"I was only mad to think such a thing could be said of her."

"Well, be off with you now! Anders of the Crag shall go farther with his
lie--if I go with him before the Foged and the Maritime Court."

For the matter of that, she might as well have threatened to go with him
to the moon; but Salve understood her to mean by the Maritime Court the
bloodiest course she knew.

As she opened the door to let him out, she said with a certain
confidential seriousness--"Tell me, Salve! has anything passed between
you and Elizabeth?"

He seemed uncertain for a moment what reply he should make to this
unexpected invitation of confidence. At length he said--

"I don't know, Mother Kirstine, for certain; two years ago, I made her a
present of a pair of shoes."

"You did!--well, see now and get on board again without any one noticing
you--that's my advice," she replied, without allowing herself to be
brought any further into the matter, and pushed him then rather
unceremoniously out of the door.

After he had gone she sat for a while with the light in her lap, staring
at it and nodding her head reflectively.

"He's a good and a handsome lad that Salve," she said at last, aloud.
"But on the whole it will be better to tell Elizabeth, and then she can
be on her guard there in the house;" and having come to this decision
she rose from her seat and prepared to go to bed again.

Salve, notwit