a great flurry when the strange gentleman appeared in the
doorway. The old wife was kneading away at the dough for a cake, the
front of her all white with flour; the old man sat with his spectacles
on, patching a shoe, and the two girls sprang up from their spinning
wheels. "Well, here I am. My name's Holm," said the traveller, looking
round and smiling. "Mercy on us! the Captain his own self," murmured the
old woman, wiping her hands on her skirt.

He was an affable gentleman, and soon set them all at their ease. He sat
down in the seat of honour, drumming with his fingers on the table, and
talking easily as if quite at home. One of the girls had been in service
for a while in a Consul's family in the town, and knew the ways of
gentlefolk, and she fetched a bowl of milk and offered it with a curtsy
and a: "Will the Captain please to take some milk?" "Thanks, thanks,"
said the visitor. "And what is your name, my dear? Come, there's nothing
to blush about. Nicoline? First-rate! And you? Lusiana? That's right."
He looked at the red-rimmed basin, and, taking it up, all but emptied it
at a draught, then, wiping his beard, took breath. "Phu!--that was good.
Well, so here I am." And he looked around the room and at each of them
in turn, and smiled, and drummed with his fingers, and said, "Well,
well--well, well," and seemed much amused with everything in general.
"By the way, Nicoline," he said suddenly, "since you're so well up in
titles, I'm not 'Captain' any more now; they've sent me up this way as
Lieutenant-Colonel, and my wife has just had a house left her in your
town here, so we may be coming to settle down in these parts. And
perhaps you'd better send letters to me through a friend in future. But
we can talk about all that by and by. Well, well--well, well." And all
the time he was drumming with his fingers on the table and smiling. Peer
noticed that he wore gold sleeve-links and a fine gold stud in his broad
white shirt-front.

And then a little packet was produced. "Hi, Peer, come and look; here's
something for you." And the "something" was nothing less than a real
silver watch--and Peer was quite unhappy for the moment because he
couldn't dash off at once and show it to all the other boys. "There's
a father for you," said the old wife, clapping her hands, and almost
in tears. But the visitor patted her on the shoulder. "Father? father?
H'm--that's not a thing any one can be so sure about. Hahaha!" And
"hahaha" e