"Are you sorry, Thelma?" asked Errington gently, as he passed one arm tenderly round her. "Sorry to trust your life to me?"
She laid her little hand in playful reproach against his lips.
"Sorry! you foolish boy! I am glad and grateful! But it is saying good-bye to one's old life, is it not? The dear old home!--and poor Sigurd!"
Her voice trembled, and bright tears fell.
"Sigurd is happy,"--said Errington gravely, taking the hand that caressed him, and reverently kissing it. "Believe me, love,--if he had lived some cruel misery might have befallen him--it is better as it is!"
Thelma did not answer for a minute or two--then she said suddenly--"Philip,--do you remember where I saw you first?"
"Perfectly!" he answered, looking fondly into the sweet upturned face. "Outside a wonderful cavern, which I afterwards explored."
She started and seemed surprised. "You went inside?--you saw--?"
"Everything!"--and Philip related his adventure of that morning, and his first interview with Sigurd. She listened attentively--then she whispered softly-"My mother sleeps there, you know,--yesterday I went to take her some flowers for the last time. Father came with me--we asked her blessing. And I think she will give it, Philip--she must know how good you are and how happy I am."
He stroked her silky hair tenderly and was silent. The Eulalie had reached the outward bend of the Altenfjord, and the station of Bosekop was rapidly disappearing. Olaf Güldmar and the others came on deck to take their last look of it.
"I shall see the old place again, I doubt not, long before you do, Thelma, child," said the stout old bonde, viewing, with a keen, fond glance, the stretch of the vanishing scenery. "Though when once you are safe married at Christiania, Valdemar Svensen and I will have a fine toss on the seas in the Valkyrie,--and I shall grow young again in the storm and drift of the foam and the dark wild waves! Yes--a wandering life suits me--and I am not sorry to have a taste of it once more. There's nothing like it--nothing like a broad ocean and a sweeping wind!"
And he lifted his cap and drew himself erect, inhaling the air like an old warrior scenting battle. The others listened, amused at his enthusiasm,--and, meanwhile, the Altenfjord altogether disappeared, and the Eulalie was soon plunging in a rougher sea. They were bound for Christiania, where it was decided Thelma's marriage should at once take place--after which Sir Philip would leave his yacht at the disposal of his friends, for them to return in it to England. He himself intended to start directly for Germany with his bride, a trip in which Britta was to accompany them as Thelma's maid. Olaf Güldmar, as he had just stated, purposed making a voyage in the Valkyrie, as soon as he should get her properly manned and fitted, which he meant to do at Christiania.