"No, the cariole came home again empty," said the captain with a sigh.
"Look out if you don't get her back to Gilje again in a carriage," added the doctor.
"She was so handsome, Rist," exclaimed the captain, quite moved. "It seems as if I see her, standing there in the middle of the floor at brother-in-law's, with her heavy black hair dressed upon her neck. From the time when she used to run about here, with the three long braids down her back, it was as if she developed into a swan all at once, when she came to dress in the clothes of a full-grown person—You remember her on confirmation day, Rist?"
"But, dear Jäger," said Ma, trying to subdue him.
The captain cautiously unfolded a letter, closely written on a large sheet of letter paper.
"And now you shall hear; this is dated January 23d."
The money which I brought with me—
"Well, well—"
The bill of Larsen for—