"It will be a conquest difficult of achievement," said the minister, "for the poor girl is——"
"Is?"——said Wilfrid.
"Mad," said the pastor.
"I will not dispute her madness," said Wilfrid, "so long as you do not dispute her superiority. Dear Pastor Becker, she has often put me to the blush by her learning. Has she traveled much?"
"From her house to the fiord."
"She has never been away!" cried Wilfrid. "Then she must have read a great deal?"
"Not a page, not a jot. I am the only person in Jarvis who has any books. Swedenborg's writings, the only works in the hamlet, are here; she has never borrowed a single volume."
"Have you ever tried to converse with her?"
"Of what use would it be?"