rs.

Her eyes, were they so very black? The freckles were still there. There
was a cure for freckles--but there were _not_ so many as there looked to
be; the old glass was so full of spots and holes in the quicksilver.

Mrs. Holman, to her surprise, saw Silla standing and rubbing, breathing
on and polishing the mirror. Her daughter must have been seized with a
new zeal.

On the evening of the third day of the fair, Nikolai strolled up to the
factory district by lamplight.

He had been fairing on his own account, and had bought a workbox as a
surprise for Silla--one with looking-glass inside the lid--and this
afternoon he had put some mounting and a nice lock upon it.

He could surely in some way succeed in meeting her and showing it to
her--so easily and with such a spring the lock went! And scissors and
needle case he had put inside. She should have the key in her own
keeping, and he would keep the box.

He had tied it in a handkerchief and put two cakes on the top, so that
the person who could guess that it was anything but a workman's bundle
that he was carrying would be more than clever.

He passed close beneath his mother's windows where there was a light,
and peeped in to see if Silla might happen to be standing at the
counter, and then strolled about indifferently up and down the streets.

It was so strangely deserted and empty here this evening.

And, look as he would through the gate and the paling, it was not
possible for him to discover a light in Mrs. Holman's window.

After having exhausted every artifice, he stationed himself on the watch
for a long time where the roads crossed and one went up to the Valsets'
cottage.

But fortune did not favour him this evening; he remained standing there
with his workbox.

It was dark all down the street except near the lamp-post.

There was somebody! There she was!

He hurried up.

No, it was that Jakobina Silla had been so much with in the summer.

There would at any rate be no harm in asking her.

"Isn't Mrs. Holman at home this evening?" he asked, taking off his cap.

"No; she's down at the fair, helping sell."

The inference flashed with a passionate joy upon Nikolai; then he would
be able to go in and see Silla.

"And so, when the cat's away the mice will play," continued Jakobina. It
was pretty well known that the smith came there for Silla's sake, and
her vexation at her three friends having got tickets, and not her,
filled her with spite