im to be quite beside himself, everything
must be smoking for his wedding at the Candlemas.

But when everything and even everybody else--save Albert and the baron,
and a few other obstinate people--was and were quite ready and rejoicing
for a grand affair, to be celebrated with well-springs of wine and
delightfully cordial Watersmeet, rocks of beef hewn into valleys, and
conglomerate cliffs of pudding; when ruddy dame and rosy damsel were
absorbed in "what to wear," and even steady farmers were in "practice
for the back step"; in a word, when all the country was gone wild about
Frida's wedding--one night there happened to come a man.

This man tied his horse to a gate and sneaked into the back yard, and
listened in a quiet corner, knowing, as he did, the ins and outs and
ways of the kitchen. Because he was that very same man who understood
the women so, and made himself at home, by long experience, in new
places. It had befallen this man, as it always befell any man of
perception, to be smitten with the kindly loveliness of Frida.
Therefore, now, although he was as hungry as ever he had been, his
heart was such that he heard the sound of dishes, yet drew no nearer.
Experience of human nature does not always spoil it.

CHAPTER VI.

When the baron at last received the letter which this rider had been
so abashed to deliver, slow but lasting wrath began to gather in his
gray-lashed eyes. It was the inborn anger of an honest man at villany
mixed with lofty scorn and traversed by a dear anxiety. Withal he found
himself so helpless that he scarce knew what to do. He had been to
Frida both a father and a mother, as she often used to tell him when
she wanted something; but now he felt that no man could administer the
velvet touches of the female sympathy.

Moreover, although he was so kind, and had tried to think what his
daughter thought, he found himself in a most ungenial mood for sweet
condolement. Any but the best of fathers would have been delighted with
the proof of all his prophecies and the riddance of a rogue. So that
even he, though dwelling in his child's heart as his own, read this
letter (when the first emotions had exploded) with a real hope that
things, in the long run, would come round again.

"To my most esteemed and honoured friend, the Lord de
Wichehalse, these from his most observant and most grateful
Aubya Auberley,--Under command of his Majesty, our most
Royal Lord and Kin