angel. Mamma had said so; but
they were not allowed to see him.

Stina made her appearance as they came to the last words; she bade them
come with her and they obeyed.

A door stood open to the left; I could see book-shelves in the room to
which it led, so that I presumed the library must be there. I felt a
desire to know what the father of these boys was reading just
then--provided that he read at all. The first thing I found open on the
desk, by the side of letters, account-books, and factory samples, was
Bain. And Bain's English friends were the first books my eyes beheld on
the nearest shelves. I took out one, and saw that it had been much read.
This accorded with what I had heard of Atlung.

Just then bells were heard outside. I thought it must be the mistress of
the house returning, and put back the books in the same order I had
found them. In so doing I disarranged some behind them (for the books
stood in two rows), and I felt a desire to examine also these that were
hidden from view, which took time. I did not leave the library until
just as the lady was entering the front door.

CHAPTER III.

Fru[4] Atlung was evidently glad to see me. She had a singular walk; it
seemed as though she never fully bent her knees; but with this peculiar
gait she advanced hastily toward me, grasped my hands with both of hers,
and looked long into my eyes, until her own filled with tears. It was,
of course, the wedding journey this look concerned, the most beautiful
days of her life;--but the tears?

Nay, unhappy she could not be. She was so thoroughly the same as she was
formerly, that had she not been somewhat plumper, I could not--at all
events, not at once--have detected the slightest change. The expression
of her countenance was exactly the same innocent, questioning one, not
the slightest suggestion of a sterner line or a change of coloring; even
the hair fell in the same ringlets about the backward thrown head, and
the half parted lips had the same gentle expression, were just as
untouched by will, the eyes wore the same look of mild happiness, even
the slightly-veiled tone of the voice had the same childlike ring as of
yore.

"You look as though you had not had a single new experience since last
we met," was the first remark I could not help making to her.

She looked up smiling into my face, and not a shadow contradicted my
words. We took our seats, each in a chair that stood out on the carpet,
near the l