When Jan had chattered himself weary she laid him in his cot, and sat hour after hour in the dim light of the glowing peats, thinking, planning, praying, whispering Jan’s name to her heart, feeling almost as if she were in his presence. When at length she rose and turned the key in her own house again, she was as proud and as happy as a queen who has just come into her kingdom, and who lifts for the first time the scepter of her authority.
CHAPTER XI.
SNORRO IS WANTED.
“Now the great heart
Leaps to new action and appointed toil
With steady hope, sure faith, and sober joy.”
During the next two years, Margaret’s life appeared to be monotonously without incident. In reality it deepened and broadened in a manner but slightly indicated by the stillness of its surface. Early in the morning following her re-occupation of her own house, she had two visitors, Dr. Balloch and her old servant, Elga.
“Elga’s husband is with the Greenland fleet,” said the minister; “she is poor and lonely, and wants to come back and serve thee.”
“But I can not afford a servant.”