sanna's blood boiled, and involuntarily she clenched her fist.

"Oh, heavens!" sighed she, "that I were but a man!"

The patriotic burgomaster's daughter burned with desire to fall upon
those who dared to despise her fatherland. She could not hear this
coolly, and almost fearing her own anger she was about to rise and take
another place, but she restrained herself, for she heard a grave, manly
voice raised in defence of that foreign calumniated country. And truly
it was refreshing for Susanna to hear Sweden defended with as much
intelligence as zeal; truly it was a joy to her to hear the assertions
of the coarser voice repelled by the other less noisy, but more powerful
voice, and at length to hear it declaim, as master of the field, the
following lines, which were addressed to his native land on the occasion
of the death of Gustavus Adolphus the Great:

At once is dimmed thy glory's ray;
Thy flowery garland fades away.
Bowed mother! But thy brightness splendid
Shall never more be ended.
The grateful world on thee her love will cast,
Who mother of Gustavus wast![4]

Yes, truly was all this a feeling of delight for Susanna; but the voice
which spoke so beautifully--the voice which defended Sweden--the voice
which called forth the feeling of delight, this voice operated more than
all the rest on Susanna, for it was that of--Harald. Susanna could not
trust her ears, she called her eyes to their assistance, and then, as
she could no longer doubt that the noble defender of her country was
Harald, she was so surprised and so joyful that in the overflowing of
her feelings she might almost have done something foolish, had not at
that very moment one of the elderly ladies of the party come to her, and
led her into a quieter corner of the room, in order to be able there
quietly to question her of all that she wished to know. This lady
belonged to that class (scattered in every country of the world) which
has a resemblance to the parasite growth, inasmuch as it grows and
flourishes by the nourishment which it seeks from the plants on which it
fixes itself. As this lady wore a brown dress, and had brown ribbons in
her cap, we find it very appropriate to call her Madame Brun. Susanna
must now give Madame Brun an account of her family, her home, all her
connexions, why she was come into Norway, how she liked living there,
and so on. In all this Susanna was tolerably open-hearted; but when the
discourse was turned upo