will be sure to please me."

"That is very well said. And you will find
that it always pays to try to please me. And
you wish to teach music? If you have no
objection I will call my oldest daughter. She is
an excellent judge of music, and if your playing
meets with her approval, I will engage you,
as my husband suggests, not to teach Edith,
you understand, but my youngest child, Clara."

Halfdan bowed assent, and Mrs. Van Kirk
rustled out into the hall where she rang a bell,
and re-entered. A servant in dress-coat
appeared, and again vanished as noiselessly as he
had come. To our Norseman there was some
thing weird and uncanny about these silent
entrances and exits; he could hardly suppress a
shudder. He had been accustomed to hear the
clatter of people's heels upon the bare floors, as
they approached, and the audible crescendo of
their footsteps gave one warning, and prevented
one from being taken by surprise. While
absorbed in these reflections, his senses must
have been dormant; for just then Miss Edith
Van Kirk entered, unheralded by anything but
a hovering perfume, the effect of which was to
lull him still deeper into his wondering abstraction.

"Mr. Birch," said Mrs. Van Kirk, "this is