Part 7 (1/2)
He sprang down to the boat that lay waiting for him below; but she didn't look after him, and went in with bowed head the opposite way.
Small things often weigh heavily in the world of impressions. Elizabeth had been overpowered by what seemed to her the magnanimity of his nature when he had declared that he would elevate her into the position of his wife; she felt that it was her worth in his eyes which had outweighed all other considerations. That he should shrink from the inevitable conflict with his family she had on the other hand never for a moment imagined. She had no doubt felt herself that it would be painful, but had stationed herself for the occasion behind his masculine s.h.i.+eld. When he now so unexpectedly began to press for time, at first even proposing to be away himself when the matter came on in his home, a feeling took possession of her which in her inward dread she instinctively clutched at as a drowning wretch at a straw, as it seemed to suggest a possibility even now of reconsidering her promise.
She had a hard and heavy time of it during the two days until Carl returned; and the nights were pa.s.sed in fever.
On Sat.u.r.day evening he came, and the first he greeted was herself: he seemed almost, as she pa.s.sed in and out of the room quiet and pale, as if he didn't wish any longer to conceal the relations now existing between them.
He had with him a letter from his father, which was read aloud when the meal was over. It was dated from a South American port, and mention was made in it of Salve among others. Off Cape Hatteras they had had stormy weather, and had their topmast carried away. It remained attached by a couple of ropes, and with the heavy sea that was running, was swinging backwards and forwards, as it hung, against the lower rigging, threatening to destroy it. Salve Kristiansen had come forward in the emergency and ventured aloft to cut it adrift; and as he sat there the whole had gone over the side. He fell with it, but had the luck to be caught in a top-lift as he fell, and so saved his life. ”It was pluckily done,” ended the account, ”but nevertheless all is not exactly right about him, and he is not turning out as well as he promised.”
”I never expected very much from him,” remarked Carl, with a contemptuous shrug of his shoulders; ”he's a bad lot.”
He didn't see the resentful eyes which Elizabeth fixed upon him for these words, and she sat for a long while afterwards out in the kitchen with her hands in her lap, silent and angry, thinking over them. A resolution was forming in her mind.
Before they retired to rest, Carl whispered to her--
”I have written to my father to-day, and--to-morrow, Elizabeth, is our betrothal-day!”
Elizabeth was the last in the room, putting it to rights, and when she left she took a sheet of paper and writing materials with her. She lay down on her bed; but about midnight she was sitting up by a light and disfiguring a sheet of paper with writing. It was to this effect:--
”Forgive me that I cannot be your wife, for my heart is given to another.--Elizabeth Raklev.”
She folded the paper and fastened it with a pin for want of a wafer, and then quietly opening the door of the room where Madam Beck was sleeping, placed her lips close to her ear, and whispered her name. Madam Beck woke up in some alarm when she saw Elizabeth standing before her fully dressed, and apparently prepared for a journey.
”Madam Beck,” Elizabeth said, quietly, ”I am going to confide something to you, and ask for your advice and a.s.sistance. Your step-son has asked me to be his wife. It was last Sunday--and I said yes; but now I have changed my mind, and am going back to my aunt, or farther away still, if you can tell me how; for I am afraid he will follow me.”
Madam Beck stared at her in mute amazement, and at first put on an incredulous and rather scornful expression; but as she came to feel that it might all be true, she raised herself involuntarily higher up in the bed.
”But--why do you come with this now, particularly in the middle of the night?” she said, with a suspicious and searching look.
”Because he has written to his father about it to-day, and means to tell you and the rest to-morrow.”
”So--he has already written? That was his object, then, in bringing you into the house here,” Madam Beck added, after a pause, with some bitterness.
It seemed to strike her then that there was something n.o.ble in Elizabeth's conduct; and looking at her more kindly, she said--
”Yes, you are right. It is best for you to go away--to some place where he will not find it so easy to reach you.”
She lapsed into thought again. Then a brilliant idea occurred to her, and she got up and put on her clothes. She had a man's clearheadedness, and her habits of management stood her in good stead on the present occasion. The Dutch skipper Garvloit, who had married her half-sister, happened just a day or two before to have been inquiring for a Norwegian girl, who would be able to help in the house; and here was just the place for Elizabeth. She had only to go on board his vessel, that lay over at Arendal ready to sail.
Madam Beck went into the sitting-room at once, and wrote a letter to Garvloit, which she gave to Elizabeth, together with a good round sum of money--wages due, she said; and half-an-hour afterwards Elizabeth was rowing over alone in the quiet moonlight night to Arendal.
The smooth sound lay full of s.h.i.+ning stars between the deep shadows of the ridges on either side, with a light from a mast here and there denoting the presence of vessels under the land. A falling star would now and then leave a stream of light behind it; and she felt a sense of joyous exultation that she could only subdue by rowing hard for long spells. She was like one escaped--relieved from some oppressive burden.
And how she looked forward to seeing Marie Forstberg now!
She arrived in the town before daybreak, and went straight up to her aunt's, to whom she announced that Madam Beck wished her to take a place in Holland with Garvloit, who was on the point of sailing. She showed her the letter--there was no time to lose.
The old woman listened to her for a while, and then said abruptly--
”There has been some difficulty with the lieutenant, Elizabeth?”