She looked fixedly at him.

"But who are you?" she asked; and then, as if the thought had suddenly
flashed upon her, she said, "It's never Salvé Kristiansen, who--" She
stopped here, and Salvé dryly finished the sentence for her--

"Who deserted from Beck at Rio?--the same."

Madam Gjers was agog with curiosity, and whispered, "I'll say
nothing--you may trust me;" and waited eagerly then for further
particulars which she might take the first opportunity of retailing.

Salvé assured her that he knew of old that a secret was always safe with
her, and resumed then absently--

"So the lieutenant is married?"

"This long while," she replied. "The wedding was at the house of the
bride's parents; and they are living now at Frederiksværn."

"Elizabeth had no parents," said Salvé, rather impatiently.

"Elizabeth?--oh! you mean the girl the Becks took to live with them.
That is quite another story," she said, significantly. "No, the
lieutenant's wife was Postmaster Forstberg's daughter. The other was
just a passing fancy--the end of it was that she had to go to Holland,
poor thing! It was said she had got a place there."

"Do you know anything for certain of this?" asked Salvé, severely, and
with an earnestness that put the little madam out of countenance, and