ght, and then relieve her opprest heart by a flood of tears. He
tried to take hold of her hand and comfort her; but she pusht his
angrily back, and then said after a while, when she had got the better
of her violent sobbing and was able to speak again: "No, leave me
alone, for we are now separated from each other for ever. I could
never have thought that you would have behaved to me so ill; for you
had always been so kind to me. Oh God! how forlorn I am now! Yes I
meant to love my husband Eleazar with all my heart, and to do
everything to please him; for heaven must grant him thus much, since
he is hated and shunned by all mankind just like a leper or an evil
spirit. I too can't bear him, if I were merely to follow my own
feelings; for he is a thoroughly utterly odious creature. But for his
sake, and out of love to my father, and for your sake too, Edward, I
had made up my mind so peaceably to all this; and therefore I thought
that you too would perhaps be very willing to stay here now, or might
even do so a little for my sake, in case everything was not just as
you wisht it."

"How so, Rose? is it partly for my sake that you have come to this
determination?" askt Edward in amazement.

"O yes!" answered the child, and her eyes had recovered their kind
look; "but now I clearly see that I had reckoned without my host. You
don't deserve it, indeed you don't like that I should be so fond of
you. And now if you are really going away, it will then be indeed a
shocking thing that I am to marry Eleazar: for in this lonely place,
without you to help me and stand by me, he would seem just like a
ghost."

"But how is it possible?"--said Edward interrupting her--

"Let me finish my speech!" exclaimed Rose hastily; "and then I will go
away and cry again; for that will very often be the case now. I
thought thus: if Eleazar is so cross, Edward is so goodnatured; and
now I shall never be a day without seeing him, and he will talk to me,
and perhaps give me books; for my father, people tell me, won't have
so much authority over me when once I am married. In this way I might
be better able to forget my woful husband, and might always think of
you when you were away, and be glad and happy as soon as you came back
to me. For thus do people live, and the parsons all order us to do so,
with our hearts half in heaven, and the other half on this bad earth.
Thus I should have kept my strength and spirits, so as even to make my
unhappy Elea