ho was Mrs. ELVSTED, with the irritating hair,
you know. They were on their honeymoon, and had just decided that it was
impossible to reconstruct poor Mr. LOeVBORG'S great book out of Mrs.
ELVSTED'S rough notes. But I insisted on GEORGE'S attempting the
impossible--with Me. And what _do_ you think Mrs. TESMAN wears in her
hair _now_?

_Dr. Herd._ Why, really I could not say. Vine-leaves, perhaps.

_Hilda._ Wrong--_straws!_ Poor TESMAN _didn't_ fancy that--so he shot
himself, _un_-beautifully, through his ticket-pocket. And I went on and
took Rosmersholm for the Summer. There had been misfortune in the house,
so it was to let. Dear good old Rector KROLL acted as my reference; his
wife and children had no sympathy with his views, so I used to see him
every day. And I persuaded him, too, to attempt the impossible--he had
never ridden anything but a rocking-horse in his life, but I made him
promise to mount the White Horse of the Rosmersholms. He didn't get over
_that_. They found his body, a fortnight afterwards, in the mill-dam.
Thrilling!

_Dr. Herd._ (_shakes his finger at her_). What a girl you are, Miss
WANGEL! But you mustn't play these games _here_, you know.

_Hilda_ (_laughs to herself_). Of course not. But I suppose I _am_ a
strange sort of bird.

_Dr. Herd._ You are like a strong tonic. When I look at you I seem to be
regarding an effervescing saline draught. Still, I really must decline
to take you.

_Hilda_ (_a little sulky_). That is not how you spoke ten years ago, up
at the mountain station, when you were such a flirt!

_Dr. Herd._ _Was_ I a flirt? Deuce take me if I remember. But I am not
like that _now_.

_Hilda._ Then you have really forgotten how you sat next to me at the
_table d'hote_, and made pills and swallowed them, and were so splendid
and buoyant and free that all the old women who knitted left next day?

_Dr. Herd._ What a memory you have for trifles, Miss WANGEL, it's quite
wonderful!

_Hilda._ Trifles! There was no trifling on _your_ part. When you
promised to come back in ten years, like a troll, and fetch me!

_Dr. Herd._ Did I say all that? It _must_ have been _after table
d'hote_!

_Hilda._ It was. I was a mere chit then--only twenty-three; but I
remember. And now _I_ have come for _you_.

_Dr. Herd._ Dear, dear! But there is nothing of the troll about me now I
have married Mrs. SOLNESS.

_Hilda_ (_looking sharply at him_). Yes, I remember you were always
dropping in to