The house in the town was undergoing repairs this year, which kept the
family out in the country until rather late in the autumn. But the
glorious September days prolonged the summer, and they could still sit
out on the steps in the evening and enjoy the beauty and the sentiment
of the season, and the rich variety of the autumn tints reflected on the
still waters of the Sound.
The members of Carl's commission, with their president, were invited out
there one day, and it was made a great occasion, all the resources of
the house being brought into requisition to do them honour.
Carl, although the youngest member of the Commission, and really only
included in it to make up the required number, had been fortunate enough
to distinguish himself upon it; and his sisters even thought that there
might be a question of an order for him--that distinction so coveted in
Norway--if they made love sufficiently to the president. Carl professed
to be quite superior to a mere external decoration of the kind, though
longing for it in his heart; and Marie Forstberg, whom he had not taken
into his confidence in the matter, was highly indignant with his sisters
for supposing that it should depend upon the president, and not upon
Carl's own merit, whether he received it or not. Mina, however, had
declared, with a great air of knowledge of the world, that people
couldn't trust to merit alone, and that, besides (and here she had laid
her hand flatteringly on her friend's shoulder), they were not all so
strict and high-principled as Marie Forstberg; and so she paid her court
to the president accordingly.
In the evening, when the gentlemen were sitting together out in the
wood, and Elizabeth came out to them with a fresh supply of hot water
for their toddy, the said president thought proper to make a joke that
brought the colour to her cheeks. She made no reply, but the water-jug
trembled in her hands as she put it down, and as she did so she gave the
speaker such a look that for a moment he felt cowed.
"'Sdeath, Beck!" he broke out, "did you see the look she gave me?"
"She is a proud girl," said Carl, who was highly incensed, but who had
his reasons for restraining himself before his superior.
"A proud girl indeed!" returned the other, in a tone which implied very
clearly that in his opinion impudent hussy would have been the more
correct description.
"A good-looking girl, I mean," said Carl, evasively, by way of
correction, and laughed constrainedly.
Elizabeth had heard what he said. She was hurt, and for the first time
instituted a comparison between him and Salvé. If Salvé had been in his
place, he would not have got out of it in that way.
Later on in the evening Carl met her alone, as she was putting things to
rights out on the steps after the departed guests, and he said
half-anxiously--
"I hope you didn't mind what that blustering old brute said, Elizabeth.
He is a very good fellow really, and doesn't mean anything by his
nonsense."
Elizabeth was silent, and tried to avoid answering by going in with what
she had in her hands.
"Come, I won't stand your being offended, Elizabeth," he broke out
suddenly, firing up in a moment, and trying to catch her by the arm.
"That hand you work with is dearer to me than the hands of all the fine
ladies put together."
"Herr Beck!" she exclaimed wildly, and with tears in her eyes, "I leave
this house--this very night--if you say a word more."
She disappeared into the hall, but he followed her.
"Elizabeth," he whispered, "I mean it in earnest." She tore herself
hastily from him, and went into the kitchen, where his sisters were
talking together over the fire.
Carl went out for a solitary walk over the island in the glorious
starlight night, and didn't come in till past midnight.
He had not meant what he said quite so decidedly in earnest; but now
after seeing her standing before him so wondrously beautiful, with tears
in her eyes--now he meant it in real earnest. He was prepared to engage
himself, if necessary, in spite of every consideration.
The next morning he left in his boat for Arendal, having whispered to
her, however, in passing, before he left, "I mean it in earnest."
The repetition of these words threw Elizabeth into dire perplexity. She
had lain and thought over them the night before, and had thrust them
from her with indignation, for they could mean nothing else than that he
had brought himself to dare to tell her that he had conceived a passion
for her, and she had quite determined to execute her threat and leave
the house.
But now, repeated in this tone!
Did he really mean to ask for her hand and heart--to ask her to be
his--an officer's wife? There lay before her fancy a glittering expanse
of earlier dreams that almost made her giddy; and the whole week she was
absent and pale, thinking anxiously of Sunday, when he was to return.
What would he say then?
And--what should she answer?
He didn't come, however, his duties having required him to make another
journey that he had not reckoned upon.
On the other hand Marie Forstberg did appear, and felt at once that some
change or other must have come over Elizabeth, as she pointedly declined
all assistance from her; and in the look which Marie Forstberg
intercepted by chance, there was something even hard and unfriendly. She
laid her hand once gently upon Elizabeth's shoulder, but it produced,
apparently, absolutely no impression--she might as well have caressed a
piece of wood; and when she returned to the sitting-room again, she
couldn't help asking, "What has happened to Elizabeth?" But the others
had not observed anything unusual.
Carl Beck, contrary to his custom, came not on the following Saturday,
but before it, in the middle of the week; and he strode with hasty steps
through the rooms when he didn't see Elizabeth.
He found her at last up-stairs. She was standing gazing out of the
window on the landing, out of which all that was to be seen was the
wooded slope of the hill and the sky above it. She heard his step--she
knew that he was coming up-stairs--and felt a sudden indefinable sense
of apprehension--a sort of panic almost--as if she could have jumped out
of the window. What should she answer?
When he came and put his arm round her waist, and asked in a low voice,
"Elizabeth, will you be mine?" she felt, for the first time in her life,
on the point of fainting. She hardly knew what she did, but pushed him
involuntarily away from her.
He seized her hand afresh, and asked, "Elizabeth, will you be my wife?"
She was very pale, as she answered--"Yes!"
But when he wanted again to take her by the waist, she sprang suddenly
back, and looked at him with an expression of terror.
"Elizabeth!" he said, tenderly, and tried again to approach her, "what
is the matter with you? If you only knew how I have longed for this
moment."
"Not now--no more now!" she pleaded, holding out her hand to him.
"Another time."
"But you say 'Yes,' Elizabeth--that you are my--?" But he felt that she
wanted him to go now.
After he had gone, she sat there on a box for a long time in silence,
gazing straight before her.
So it had actually come to pass! Her heart beat so that she could hear
it herself, and she seemed to feel a dull pain there. Her face, little
by little, acquired a fixed, cold expression: she was thinking that he
was then telling his stepmother of their engagement, and fortifying
himself for her reception of the announcement.
She expected to be called down. But no summons came; and at last she
decided to go without being called.
In the sitting-room they were all quietly intent upon their several
occupations. Carl was pretending to read a book; but he threw her a
stolen, tenderly anxious look over the top of it when she entered.
Supper was brought in, and everything went on as quietly as usual, even
to his customary banter. To Elizabeth it seemed as if there was a mist
over them all; and when Mina once asked if there was anything the matter
with her, she could only answer mechanically, 'No.' The question was
repeated later on, and received the same answer. She brought the supper
things in and took them out, as usual, and it seemed as if she could not
feel the floor under her feet, or what she carried in her hand.
The evening passed, and they went to bed without anything happening. But
in the partial darkness of the stair-landing, he seized her hand
passionately, and said--"Good-night, my Elizabeth, _my--my_ Elizabeth!"
She was not in a condition to return the pressure of his hand, and when
he approached his lips to her forehead, she hastily drew herself away.
"I came out here alone to tell you this, dear, dearest Elizabeth," he
whispered, with passion trembling in his voice, and making an effort to
draw her to him. "I must be on land again to-morrow. Must I go without
one sign that you care for me?"
She bent her forehead slowly towards him, and he kissed it, and she then
immediately left him.
"Good-night, my beloved one!" he whispered after her.
Elizabeth lay for a long while awake. She would have given anything to
have been able to cry, but the tears would not come; and she felt as if
she was freezing internally. When at last she did fall asleep, it was
not of him she dreamt, but of Salvé--the whole time of Salvé. She saw
him gazing at her with that earnest face--it was so heavy with grief,
and she stood like a criminal before him. He said something that she
could not hear, but she understood that he condemned her, and that he
had thrown the dress overboard.
She rose early, and tried to occupy her thoughts with other dreams--with
her future as an officer's lady. But it was as if all that had before
seemed to be pure gold was now changed to brass. She felt unhappy and
restless; and it was a long time before she could make up her mind to go
into the sitting-room.
Carl Beck did not leave that morning. He had perceived that there was
something on Elizabeth's mind.
During the forenoon, when his sisters were out, and his stepmother was
occupied, he found an opportunity to speak with her alone: she was in a
fever, always waiting for him to have spoken to Madam Beck.
"Elizabeth," he said, gently smoothing her hair, for she looked
dispirited, and stood with her eyes fixed upon the ground, "I couldn't
leave without having spoken to you again."
She still kept her eyes upon the ground, but didn't withdraw herself
from his hand.
"Do you really care for me?--will you be my wife?"
She was silent. At last she said, a shade paler, and as if with an
effort--
"Yes--Herr Beck."
"Say 'du' to me--say Carl," he pleaded, with much feeling, "and--look at
me."
She looked at him, but not as he had expected. It was with a fixed, cold
look she said--
"Yes, if we are engaged."
"Are we not then?"
"When is your stepmother to know it?" she asked, rather dragging the
words out one after the other.
"Dear Elizabeth! These people at home here must notice nothing for--for
three months, when I shall be--" But he caught an expression now in her
face, and something in the abrupt way in which she drew her hand from
him, that made him keep back what he had originally intended to say, and
he corrected it hastily.
"Next week, then, I'll write from Arendal and tell my father, and then
let my stepmother know what I have written. Are you offended,
Elizabeth--dear Elizabeth? or shall I do it at once?" he broke out
resolutely, and seized her hand again.
"No, no--not now! next week--let it not be till next week," she cried,
in sudden apprehension, returning the pressure of his hand at the same
time almost entreatingly--it was the first he had had from her.
"And then you are mine, Elizabeth?"
"Yes, then"--she tried to avoid meeting his eye.
"Farewell, then, Elizabeth! But I shall come back on Saturday. I can't
live for longer without seeing you."
"Farewell!" she said, in a rather toneless voice.
He sprang down to the boat that lay waiting for him below; but she
didn't look after him, and went in with bowed head the opposite way.
Small things often weigh heavily in the world of impressions. Elizabeth
had been overpowered by what seemed to her the magnanimity of his nature
when he had declared that he would elevate her into the position of his
wife; she felt that it was her worth in his eyes which had outweighed
all other considerations. That he should shrink from the inevitable
conflict with his family she had on the other hand never for a moment
imagined. She had no doubt felt herself that it would be painful, but
had stationed herself for the occasion behind his masculine shield. When
he now so unexpectedly began to press for time, at first even proposing
to be away himself when the matter came on in his home, a feeling took
possession of her which in her inward dread she instinctively clutched
at as a drowning wretch at a straw, as it seemed to suggest a
possibility even now of reconsidering her promise.
She had a hard and heavy time of it during the two days until Carl
returned; and the nights were passed in fever.
On Saturday evening he came, and the first he greeted was herself: he
seemed almost, as she passed in and out of the room quiet and pale, as
if he didn't wish any longer to conceal the relations now existing
between them.
He had with him a letter from his father, which was read aloud when the
meal was over. It was dated from a South American port, and mention was
made in it of Salvé among others. Off Cape Hatteras they had had stormy
weather, and had their topmast carried away. It remained attached by a
couple of ropes, and with the heavy sea that was running, was swinging
backwards and forwards, as it hung, against the lower rigging,
threatening to destroy it. Salvé Kristiansen had come forward in the
emergency and ventured aloft to cut it adrift; and as he sat there the
whole had gone over the side. He fell with it, but had the luck to be
caught in a top-lift as he fell, and so saved his life. "It was pluckily
done," ended the account, "but nevertheless all is not exactly right
about him, and he is not turning out as well as he promised."
"I never expected very much from him," remarked Carl, with a
contemptuous shrug of his shoulders; "he's a bad lot."
He didn't see the resentful eyes which Elizabeth fixed upon him for
these words, and she sat for a long while afterwards out in the kitchen
with her hands in her lap, silent and angry, thinking over them. A
resolution was forming in her mind.
Before they retired to rest, Carl whispered to her--
"I have written to my father to-day, and--to-morrow, Elizabeth, is our
betrothal-day!"
Elizabeth was the last in the room, putting it to rights, and when she
left she took a sheet of paper and writing materials with her. She lay
down on her bed; but about midnight she was sitting up by a light and
disfiguring a sheet of paper with writing. It was to this effect:--
"Forgive me that I cannot be your wife, for my heart is given to
another.--Elizabeth Raklev."
She folded the paper and fastened it with a pin for want of a wafer, and
then quietly opening the door of the room where Madam Beck was sleeping,
placed her lips close to her ear, and whispered her name. Madam Beck
woke up in some alarm when she saw Elizabeth standing before her fully
dressed, and apparently prepared for a journey.
"Madam Beck," Elizabeth said, quietly, "I am going to confide something
to you, and ask for your advice and assistance. Your step-son has asked
me to be his wife. It was last Sunday--and I said yes; but now I have
changed my mind, and am going back to my aunt, or farther away still, if
you can tell me how; for I am afraid he will follow me."
Madam Beck stared at her in mute amazement, and at first put on an
incredulous and rather scornful expression; but as she came to feel that
it might all be true, she raised herself involuntarily higher up in the
bed.
"But--why do you come with this now, particularly in the middle of the
night?" she said, with a suspicious and searching look.
"Because he has written to his father about it to-day, and means to tell
you and the rest to-morrow."
"So--he has already written? That was his object, then, in bringing you
into the house here," Madam Beck added, after a pause, with some
bitterness.
It seemed to strike her then that there was something noble in
Elizabeth's conduct; and looking at her more kindly, she said--
"Yes, you are right. It is best for you to go away--to some place where
he will not find it so easy to reach you."
She lapsed into thought again. Then a brilliant idea occurred to her,
and she got up and put on her clothes. She had a man's clearheadedness,
and her habits of management stood her in good stead on the present
occasion. The Dutch skipper Garvloit, who had married her half-sister,
happened just a day or two before to have been inquiring for a Norwegian
girl, who would be able to help in the house; and here was just the
place for Elizabeth. She had only to go on board his vessel, that lay
over at Arendal ready to sail.
Madam Beck went into the sitting-room at once, and wrote a letter to
Garvloit, which she gave to Elizabeth, together with a good round sum of
money--wages due, she said; and half-an-hour afterwards Elizabeth was
rowing over alone in the quiet moonlight night to Arendal.
The smooth sound lay full of shining stars between the deep shadows of
the ridges on either side, with a light from a mast here and there
denoting the presence of vessels under the land. A falling star would
now and then leave a stream of light behind it; and she felt a sense of
joyous exultation that she could only subdue by rowing hard for long
spells. She was like one escaped--relieved from some oppressive burden.
And how she looked forward to seeing Marie Forstberg now!
She arrived in the town before daybreak, and went straight up to her
aunt's, to whom she announced that Madam Beck wished her to take a place
in Holland with Garvloit, who was on the point of sailing. She showed
her the letter--there was no time to lose.
The old woman listened to her for a while, and then said abruptly--
"There has been some difficulty with the lieutenant, Elizabeth?"
"Yes, aunt, there has," she replied; "he made love to me."
"He did--"
"And first I said as good as yes. But I don't mean to have him--and so I
told Madam Beck."
"So you wouldn't have him?" was the rejoinder, after an astonished
pause; "and the reason, I suppose, was that you would rather have
Salvé?"
"Yes, aunt," in a low voice.
"And why in the world didn't you take him, then?"
The tears came into Elizabeth's eyes.
"Well--as people make their beds so they must lie," said the old woman,
severely--and betook herself then, without any further observation, to
the preparation of the morning coffee.
As Elizabeth went down to the quay, to get a boat to take her out to the
merchantman, she looked in at the post-office, where she found Marie
Forstberg already up, and busy in the sitting-room in her morning dress.
She was greatly astonished when Elizabeth told her of her new
destination.
It was such an advantageous offer, Elizabeth explained--an almost
independent place in the house; and Madam Beck had herself advised her
to take it.
But though she used all her wit to keep the other off the scent, Marie
Forstberg found a want of connection somewhere, and Elizabeth could see
it in her eyes. She asked no further questions, however; and when they
took leave of each other they embraced, in tears.
Out at Tromö the surprise was great when it was found that Elizabeth had
gone. Carl Beck had found her letter under the door, but had never
imagined that she had left, and had gone out with it in violent
agitation of mind and did not come home again till late in the
afternoon. Madam Beck had in the meantime confided the matter to her
daughters, and they would understand, she said, that not a word of it
must be mentioned outside the house.
Although his eyes sought for her unceasingly, Carl made no express
inquiry after her till the evening, and when he heard that she was gone,
and was perhaps by that time already under sail for Holland, he sat for
awhile as if petrified. Looking scornfully at them then, one after
another, he said--
"If I thought that I had any of you to thank for this, I'd--" here he
seized the chair he had been sitting on, dashed it down upon the floor
so that it broke, and sprang up-stairs.
But her letter was unfortunately clear enough--she loved another, and he
knew, too, who it was.