hick gray eyebrows; the same white hair escaping in snowy flakes from a
black velvet cap; the same broad, bald brow, and a contour of face
which the ample chin made almost square; and lastly, the same calm
tranquillity, which, to an observer, denoted the possession of some
inward power, be it the supremacy bestowed by money, or the magisterial
influence of the burgomaster, or the consciousness of art, or the
cubic force of blissful ignorance. This fine old man, whose stout body
proclaimed his vigorous health, was wrapped in a dressing-gown of rough
gray cloth plainly bound. Between his lips was a meerschaum pipe,
from which, at regular intervals, he blew the smoke, following with
abstracted vision its fantastic wreathings,--his mind employed, no
doubt, in assimilating through some meditative process the thoughts of
the author whose works he was studying.

On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with
the kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good man's
smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a little
table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, and
another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which shone
on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. Her
fresh young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite
purity which harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the clear
blue eyes. She sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for better
light, unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her waist and
bust. She was already dressed for the night in a long robe of white
cotton; a cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of the same,
confined her hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward meditation,
she counted without a mistake the threads of her napkins or the meshes
of her socks. Sitting thus, she presented the most complete image, the
truest type, of the woman destined for terrestrial labor, whose glance
may piece the clouds of the sanctuary while her thought, humble and
charitable, keeps her ever on the level of man.

Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and
was contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of
harmony, to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single window
which lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now carefully
closed. An old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to a stick,
hung b