"No, mother, it's not. I've come off my watch; I wanted to have a word
with you about Elizabeth."

His tone was so strangely low and sorrowful, that the old woman saw that
there must be something unusual the matter; and she opened the door.

"About Elizabeth, you say?"

"Yes--where is she stopping now?"

"Where is she stopping?--why, with the Becks, of course. Is there
anything the matter?"

"You ought to know that best, mother Kirstine," he said, earnestly.

She held up the light to his face, and looked at him in vague anxiety,
but could make nothing out of it.

"If I ought to know it, tell me," she said, almost in a tone of
entreaty.

"Young Beck, I hear, has been out about Torungen the whole
year--shooting sea-birds--or--do you really think he means to marry
her?" he broke out wildly, and raising his voice.

It was only now that she caught his full meaning; and setting down the
candlestick hard upon the table, she dropped into the chair by the side
herself.