f perspiration running down
the minister's forehead, as he lay there on the boat in the wintry-cold
sea, and that they believed he even thought of purposely letting go his
hold that he might follow his daughter.

Too late they found out that Susanna was under the boat. She had become
entangled in a rope, so that she could not rise to the surface.

Her death had at any rate been quick and painless.

The whole of Saturday and Sunday, while the storm lasted, they were
compelled to lie weatherbound at a peasant's house in the neighbourhood,
where the minister's wife had kept her bed from exhaustion and grief.

The minister had sat nearly the whole time in the large parlour where
they had laid Susanna, and talked with his God; and on Monday morning,
when they were to go home, he was resigned and cairn, arranged
everything, and comforted his poor, weeping wife.

* * * * *

I had lain in dumb, despairing sorrow the whole afternoon and throughout
the long night, and determined to go the next day and see Susanna for
the last time.

Early in the forenoon, the minister unexpectedly entered our parlour,
and asked to speak to my father. He looked pale and solemn as he sat on
the sofa, with his stick in front of him, and waited.

When my father came in at the door, the minister rose and took his hand,
while the tears stood in his eyes.

After a pause, as if to recover himself, he said that my father saw
before him an unhappy but humble man, whom God had to chasten severely
before his will would bend to Him. He wanted now, because of his
unhappiness, to ask my father not to deny him his old friendship any
longer.

Of the matter that had caused the estrangement he would not now speak;
he had acted to the best of his judgment. There was, however, something
else which now lay on his heart, and here he put his hand on my shoulder
and drew me affectionately to him, as he once more sat down on the sofa.

His daughter Susanna, he continued, sighing at the name, a few days
before God took her to Himself, had admitted him into her confidence,
and told him that she had loved me from the time she was a child, and
that we two had already given each other our promise, with the intention
of telling our parents when I became a student.

At first he had been strongly opposed to the engagement for many
reasons, first and foremost my health and our youth. But Susanna had
shown such intense earnestness in the