symbol, nor did she apply it, but everything became
symbolic. The perpetual glitter of the balls in the air represented to
her the icy glance which had just made her tremble.

"The old man is extraordinarily strong," said the adjutant. "I once saw
a man in Venice with another man standing on his shoulders, who stooped
and raised a third, and he worked his way up and stood on the second
man's shoulders, and then, only think, they drew up a fourth, who
managed to stand on the shoulders of the third. The first man walked
about on the ground, carrying with him the other three, while the upper
man played with balls."

"Were I to die at this moment," the lady was saying on the other side,
"and the soul could forget everything here and have imparted to it a new
series of wonderful problems, infinite vistas, so that enraptured
discovery after discovery might be made--what could there be more
glorious?"

"My imagination does not carry me so far," came in the general's firm
voice. "I am ready to stake my life that to live and die in the
fulfillment of one's duty is the greatest happiness a healthily
organized human being can feel. The rest is, after all, of little
consequence."

Here Magnhild received a feverish pressure of the hand.

"Applaud, ladies and gentlemen, applaud," said the clown, hoarsely and
good-naturedly. This raised a laugh, but no one stirred.

"Why do not the dogs come out?" asked Magda, who heard the animals
impatiently barking in the tent.

About the mountain peaks clouds crisped and curled; a gust of wind
betokened a change in the weather; the fjord darkened under the
influence of a swiftly rising squall. There was something infinitely
sublime in the landscape; something awe-inspiring.

It began to grow cold. The people in the background felt hushed and
gloomy. Now the clown's wife came forward; _she_ was to go on the tight
rope. The haggard, faded beauty wore a dress cut very low in the neck,
and with short sleeves. The lady shivered as she looked at her,
complained of cold feet, and rose. The general, the adjutant, and
consequently Magnhild also, did the same; Magda alone, with looks of
entreaty, kept her seat; she was waiting for the dogs. A single glance
from her mother sufficed; she got up without a word.

They passed out the same way the officers had come in; not one of them
looked back. The lady laughed her most ringing laugh; its pleasant tones
rolled back over the assembled multitude. Eve