“The king? I pray for him every morning and evening, although I do not know him.”
Ethel did not understand why the stranger bit her lip at this reply.
“Does your unhappy father never, in his anger, mention his relentless foes, General Arensdorf, Bishop Spolleyson, and Chancellor d’Ahlefeld?”
“I don’t know whom you mean.”
“And do you know the name of Levin de Knud?”
The recollection of the scene which had occurred but two days before, between Schumacker and the governor of Throndhjem, was so fresh in Ethel’s mind that she could not but be struck by the name of Levin de Knud.
“Levin de Knud?” said she; “I think that he is the man for whom my father feels so much esteem, almost affection.”
“What!” cried the tall woman.
“Yes,” resumed the girl; “it was Levin de Knud whom my father defended so warmly, day before yesterday, against the governor of Throndhjem.”
These words increased her hearer’s surprise.