And here was one who was likely
to understand her, and to whom she seemed
willing to yield all the affection of her warm
but wayward heart. Thus ran Lage Ulfson's
reflections; and at night he had a little consultation
with Elsie, his wife, who, it is needless to
add, was no less sanguine than he.
"And then Aasa will make an excellent housewife,
you know," observed Elsie. "I will speak
to the girl about it to-morrow."
"No, for Heaven's sake, Elsie!" exclaimed
Lage, "don't you know your daughter better
than that? Promise me, Elsie, that you will
not say a single word; it would be a cruel thing,
Elsie, to mention anything to her. She is not
like other girls, you know."
"Very well, Lage, I shall not say a single
word. Alas, you are right, she is not like other
girls." And Elsie again sighed at her husband's
sad ignorance of a woman's nature, and at the
still sadder fact of her daughter's inferiority to
the accepted standard of womanhood.
IV.
Trond Vigfusson must have made a rich
harvest of legends at Kvaerk, at least judging by
the time he stayed there; for days and weeks
passed, and he had yet said nothing of going.
Not that anybody wished him to go; no, on the
contrary, the longer he stayed the more
indispensable he seemed to all; and Lage Ulfson
could hardly think without a shudder of the
possibility of his ever having to leave them.
For Aasa, his only child, was like another being
in the presence of this stranger; all that weird,
forest-like intensity, that wild, half supernatural
tinge in her character which in a measure
excluded her from the blissful feeling of fellowship
with other men, and made her the strange,
lonely creature she was,--all this seemed to vanish
as dew in the morning sun when Vigfusson's
eyes rested upon her; and with every day that
passed, her human and womanly nature gained
a stronger hold upon her.
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