"This is undeniably, my affair," he said proudly, and pointed at
the shop. "I wish to go in alone and attend to it. If I do not
succeed, then you may try."

They nodded. "Go ahead, Petter Nord! We will wait outside."

Petter Nord went in, found a young man alone in the shop, and asked
about Halfvorson. He heard that the latter had gone away. He had
quite a talk with the clerk, and obtained a good deal of
information about his master.

Halfvorson had never been accused of illicit trade. How he had
behaved towards Petter Nord every one knew, but no one spoke of
that affair any more. Halfvorson had risen in the world, and now he
was not at all dangerous. He was not inhuman to his debtors, and
had ceased to spy on his shop-boys. The last few years he had
devoted himself to gardening. He had laid out a garden around his
house in the town, and a kitchen garden near the customhouse. He
worked so eagerly in his gardens that he scarcely thought of
amassing money.

Petter Nord felt a stab in his heart. Of course the man was good.
He had remained in paradise. Of course any one was good who lived
there.

Edith Halfvorson was still with her uncle, but she had been ill for
a while. Her lungs were weak, ever since an attack of pneumonia in
the winter.