what I was there for, and I had her now. I didn't let her go again,
either, though the teacher delicately hinted that we were not a
good match. She was the best dancer in the school, and I was the
worst. Not a good match, hey! That was as much as she knew about
it.

It was at the ball that closed the dancing-school that I excited the
strong desire of the matrons to box my ears by ordering Elizabeth's
father off the floor when he tried to join in before midnight, the
time set for the elders to take charge. I was floor committee, but
how I could do such a thing passes my understanding, except on the
principle laid down by Mr. Dooley that when a man is in love he
is looking for fight all around. I must have been, for they had to
hold me back by main strength from running away to the army that was
fighting a losing fight with two Great Powers that winter. Though
I was far under age, I was a big boy, and might have passed; but
the hasty retreat of our brave little band before overwhelming
odds settled it. With the echoes of the scandal caused by the ball
episode still ringing, I went off to Copenhagen to serve out my
apprenticeship there with a great builder whose name I saw among
the dead in the paper only the other day. He was ever a good friend
to me.

[Illustration: My Childhood's Home]

The third day after I reached the capital, which happened to be
my birthday, I had appointed a meeting with my student brother at
the art exhibition in the palace of Charlottenborg. I found two
stairways running up from the main entrance, and was debating in
my mind which to take, when a handsome gentleman in a blue overcoat