'GOD'S PEACE' 311
waves to me with her handkerchief. Yes, it is really she !
Heaven be praised for the smile with which she greets me. So she is really delighted to see me — delighted at this unexpected meeting.
We walk up through the town together. I am so overwhelmed with happiness that I cannot speak. I walk through my town at Aer side, and I hear her tell me the reason for her journey. She comes from the same place as that moraing I saw her on the steamer, a small market-town at the mouth of the fjord. She goes there every fortnight to sell the produce of the garden, such as fruit, vegetables, jam, and honey. Her father has a business friend there, with whom he prefers to deal, rather than with the merchants of the old town.
When she has told me all this, and I am still silent, she says : ' But what were you doing down at the harbour ? Did you expect some one ? '
' Yes,' I answered, ' I think so. Ever since my childhood the steamer has always brought me some- body I was fond of. And even to-day it did not fail me.' Seeing that my words do not embarrass her, I continue : ' And you . Tell me, did you expect, when you looked towards the land, that some one was waiting for you ? '
She answers : ' I stood in the fog thinking of you, thinking of the morning I first saw you, and suddenly I saw you there — on the other side of the fog.'
Involuntarily I take her hand, and when she does
