Chapter 11

The house in the town was undergoing repairs this year, which kept the
family out in the country until rather late in the autumn. But the
glorious September days prolonged the summer, and they could still sit
out on the steps in the evening and enjoy the beauty and the sentiment
of the season, and the rich variety of the autumn tints reflected on the
still waters of the Sound.

The members of Carl's commission, with their president, were invited out
there one day, and it was made a great occasion, all the resources of
the house being brought into requisition to do them honour.

Carl, although the youngest member of the Commission, and really only
included in it to make up the required number, had been fortunate enough
to distinguish himself upon it; and his sisters even thought that there
might be a question of an order for him--that distinction so coveted in
Norway--if they made love sufficiently to the president. Carl professed
to be quite superior to a mere external decoration of the kind, though
longing for it in his heart; and Marie Forstberg, whom he had not taken
into his confidence in the matter, was highly indignant with his sisters
for supposing that it should depend upon the president, and not upon
Carl's own merit, whether he received it or not. Mina, however, had
declared, with a great air of knowledge of the world, that people
couldn't trust to merit alone, and that, besides (and here she had laid
her hand flatteringly on her friend's shoulder), they were not all so
strict and high-principled as Marie Forstberg; and so she paid her court
to the president accordingly.

In the evening, when the gentlemen were sitting together out in the
wood, and Elizabeth came out to them with a fresh supply of hot water
for their toddy, the said president thought proper to make a joke that
brought the colour to her cheeks. She made no reply, but the water-jug
trembled in her hands as she put it down, and as she did so she gave the
speaker such a look that for a moment he felt cowed.

"'Sdeath, Beck!" he broke out, "did you see the look she gave me?"

"She is a proud girl," said Carl, who was highly incensed, but who had
his reasons for restraining himself before his superior.

"A proud girl indeed!" returned the other, in a tone which implied very
clearly that in his opinion impudent hussy would have been the more
correct description.

"A good-looking girl, I mean," said Carl, evasively, by way of
correction, and laughed constrainedly.

Elizabeth had heard what he said. She was hurt, and for the first time
instituted a comparison between him and Salvé. If Salvé had been in his
place, he would not have got out of it in