excitedly, striking one hand into the other with a loud smack--"she
shall hear what fine faith you have in her."

"Dear mother Kirstine! I didn't mean any harm," he said, entreatingly,
feeling as if a weight had been taken off his heart--"only please don't
tell Elizabeth."

"You may depend upon it I will."

"Mother Kirstine!" he said, in a low voice, and looking down, "I brought
a dress with me for her that I had bought in Boston. And then I heard
all this, and I couldn't contain myself." He said nothing about the
rings.

"So!" rejoined the old woman after a pause, during which she had
examined him through her half-closed eyes, and in a somewhat milder
tone; "so you brought a dress for her! and at the same time you come
running up here in the middle of the night to tell me that she has
become a common baggage for the lieutenant,"--and her anger rose again.

"But, Mother Kirstine, I don't believe a word of it."

"It wasn't to tell me that, I suppose, you came up here in such haste,
my lad."

"I was only mad to think such a thing could be said of her."

"Well, be off with you now! Anders of the Crag shall go farther with his
lie--if I go with him before the Foged and the Maritime Court."