"When is your stepmother to know it?" she asked, rather dragging the
words out one after the other.

"Dear Elizabeth! These people at home here must notice nothing for--for
three months, when I shall be--" But he caught an expression now in her
face, and something in the abrupt way in which she drew her hand from
him, that made him keep back what he had originally intended to say, and
he corrected it hastily.

"Next week, then, I'll write from Arendal and tell my father, and then
let my stepmother know what I have written. Are you offended,
Elizabeth--dear Elizabeth? or shall I do it at once?" he broke out
resolutely, and seized her hand again.

"No, no--not now! next week--let it not be till next week," she cried,
in sudden apprehension, returning the pressure of his hand at the same
time almost entreatingly--it was the first he had had from her.

"And then you are mine, Elizabeth?"

"Yes, then"--she tried to avoid meeting his eye.

"Farewell, then, Elizabeth! But I shall come back on Saturday. I can't
live for longer without seeing you."

"Farewell!" she said, in a rather toneless voice.

He sprang down to the boat that lay waiting for him below; but she
didn't look after him, and went in with bowed head the opposite way.

Small things often weigh heavily in the world of impressions. Elizabeth
had been overpowered by what seemed to her the magnanimity of his nature
when he had declared that he would elevate her into the position of his
wife; she felt that it was her worth in his eyes which had outweighed
all other considerations. That he should shrink from the inevitable
conflict with his family she had on the other hand never for a moment
imagined. She had no doubt felt herself that it would be painful, but
had stationed herself for the occasion behind his masculine shield. When
he now so unexpectedly began to press for time, at first even proposing
to be away himself when the matter came on in his home, a feeling took
possession of her which in her inward dread she instinctively clutched
at as a drowning wretch at a straw, as it seemed to suggest a
possibility even now of reconsidering her promise.

She had a hard and heavy time of it during the two days until Carl
returned; and the nights were passed in fever.

On Saturday evening he came, and the first he greeted was herself: he
seemed almost, as she passed in and out of the room quiet and pale, as
if he didn't wish any longer to conceal the relations