Now the very shabbiness of his
appearance, and the look of appealing misery in
his features, opened in her bosom the gate
through which compassion could enter, and,
with that generous self-forgetfulness which was
the chief factor of her character, she leaned
over toward him, and said:
"You must have been very sick, Mr. Strand.
Why did you not come to us and allow us to
take care of you, instead of roaming about here
in this stony wilderness?"
"Yes; I have been sick," cried Strand, with
sudden vehemence, seizing her hand; "but it is
a sickness of which I shall never, never be
healed."
And with that world-old eloquence which is
yet ever new, he poured forth his passionate
confession in her ear, and she listened, hungrily
at first, then with serene, wide-eyed happiness.
He told her how, driven by his inward restlessness,
he had wandered about in the mountains,
until one evening at a saeter, he had heard a
peasant lad singing a song, in which this stanza
occurred:
"A woman's frown, a woman's smile,
Nor hate nor fondness prove;
For maidens smile on him they hate,
And fly from him they love."
Then it had occurred to him for the first time
in his life that a woman's behavior need not be
the logical indicator of her deepest feelings,
and, enriched with this joyful discovery,
inspired with new hope, he had returned, but had
not dared at once to seek the Parsonage, until
he could invent some plausible reason for his
return; but his imagination was very poor, and
he had found none, except that he loved the
pastor's beautiful daughter.
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