and kept appearing and disappearing again in the most distracting
fashion. Only towards evening did I hold its pelt in my hand and home
with it I went straightway. And now, again, an oppressive feeling
overcame me, just as if there was something wrong going on somewhere in
the world which it was in my power to prevent. Only in the evening when
I was pulling off my dress boots did it flash across me that I ought to
have been present at my wedding that very day. And so matters remained
as they were, for my bride was so angry with me for my forgetfulness
that she went away and married a lawyer fellow. No doubt she got the
right man, but since then I have had no desire for matrimony."

The company laughed heartily at this jest, and then attacked the
patriarchal banquet with tremendous appetite, nor did they wait to be
asked twice to fill their glasses. Henrietta, naturally, did not touch
anything. Even at ordinary times she ate very little, but now there was
nothing at all she fancied. Mr. Gerzson was in despair.

"My dear lady," said he, "you eat so little that if I were a day
labourer I could easily support you on my wages."

The company laughed aloud at this. The idea of a day labourer with such
hands and feet as that!

Then Gerzson proceeded to relate to them the exploits or misadventures
in which his various limbs had more or less come to grief. "And now,"
concluded he, "I will tell your ladyship how I came by this scar on my
forehead. A few years ago I was visiting our friend Leonard, your
husband, my dear lady, at his castle at Hidvar, and whilst there we
spent two weeks among the glaciers."

"Night and day?" enquired the astonished Henrietta.

"Well, at night we built ourselves huts out of the branches of fir
trees. If, however, no rain fell we encamped in the open round our
watch-fire snugly wrapped up in our _bundas_[6]. Splendid fun I can
tell you! For two days, when our stores gave out, we lived on nothing
but bilberries and broiled bear's flesh."

[Footnote 6: Sheepskins.]

"You were badly off then."

"No, on the contrary, the paws of a bear are great delicacies, only we
had no salt to salt them with."

"Why did you not return home?"

"We could not, for four days together we had been on the track of a
blood-bear. Do you know what a blood-bear is? A bear is a very mild,
harmless sort of a beast in general, and is quite content with honey,
berries, and roots; but let him once taste blood and he rages