They had barely gone when Katrina walked in. She must have been
standing outside the door listening. But how long she had stood
there or how much she had heard, Jan did not know. Anyway, she
looked more amiable and serene than she had appeared in a long
while.

"You're an old simpleton," she told him. "I wonder what other women
would say if they had a husband like you? But still it's a comfort
to know that you don't want to go away from me."


BJÖRN HINDRICKSON'S FUNERAL

Jan Anderson of Ruffluck was not invited to the funeral of Björn
Hindrickson of Loby.

But he understood, of course, that the family of the departed had
not been quite certain that he would care to claim kinship with
them now that he had risen to such glory and honour; possibly they
feared it might upset their arrangements if so exalted a personage
as Johannes of Portugallia were to attend the funeral.

The immediate relatives of the late Björn Hindrickson naturally
wished to ride in the first carriage, where by rights place should
have been made for him who was an emperor. They knew, to be sure,
that he was not over particular about the things which seem to
count for so much with most folks. It would never have occurred to
him to stand in the way of those who like to sit in the place of
honour at special functions. Therefore, rather than cause any ill