"Quite right, Miss! When the bride-to-be makes her wheel go so
industriously beforehand, her sweetheart may hope and expect to have
full chests and boxes afterwards. When is the wedding to be?"

"A week from Thursday, your reverence, if it is permissible," replied
the bride, turning, if possible, even redder than before. She humbly
kissed the clergyman's hand--the latter was still a youngish man--took
his hat and cane from him, and handed him, by way of welcome, a
refreshing drink. The others, after they had formed a circle around the
bride, and had likewise remembered her with a handshake and an
expression of good will, also partook of the refreshing beverage;
thereupon they left the room and went into the entrance-hall. The
clergyman, however, continued to discuss the affairs of the community
with the Justice, who, with his hat in his hand all the time, stood
before him in reverential posture.

The young Hunter, who, unnoticed by the others, had been watching the
scene from a corner of the room, would have liked to greet the clergyman
before now, but he felt that it would be rude to break in upon the
conversation between the strangers and the inmates of the house, a
conversation which, in spite of the rusticity of the scene, had yet an
air of diplomatic ceremony. For in the clergyman he recognized, with
joyful astonishment, a former academic acquaintance.

The Justice now left the room for a moment, and the Hunter went over to
the Pastor and greeted him by name. The clergyman started and passed his
hand across his eyes, but he, likewise, at once recognized the other and
was no less happy to see him.

"But," he added to the first words of greeting, "this is no place nor
time for a talk. Come along with me afterwards when I drive away from
the farm--then we can have a chat together. I am a public character
here and stand under the constraint of a most imperious ceremonial. We
cannot take any notice of each other, and you too, in a passive sort of
way, must conform to the ritual. Above all things don't laugh at
anything that you see--that would offend the good people extremely.
These old established customs, strange as they may seem, always have,
nevertheless, their venerable side."

"Have no fear," replied the Hunter. "But I should like to know--"

"Everything afterwards!" whispered the clergyman, glancing toward the
door, which the Justice was just then re-entering. He retreated from the
Hunter just as from a s