A Hardy Norseman

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A HARDY NORSEMAN VOL. I. NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS AT ALL THE LIBRARIES. MY LORD OTHELLO. By Henry Cresswell, Author of ' A Modern Greek Heroine/ * A Wily Widow,' &c. 3 vols. GEOFF. By Gertrude Forbe, Author of 'In the Old Palazzo,' ' Driven Before the Storm,' &c. 3 vols. THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. By May Crommelin, Author of ' Queenie," ' Orange Lily,' &c. 2 vols. THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. By G. M. Robins, Author of ' Keep my Secret/ * A False Position,' &c. 3 vols. BOTH OF THIS PARISH. By Algernon Gissing, Author of f Joy Cometh in the Morning.' 2 vols. HURST & BLACKETT, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. A HARDY NORSEMAN By EDNA LYALL AUTHOR OF • DONOVAN,' ' WE TWO,' ' IN THE GOLDEN DAYS, ' KNIGHT ERRANT,' ETC. ' How self-reliant ami how full of hope, He holds the point of his uuconquer'd blade To Fate'> dark breast, and says, " Thou must way !

"* The Frithiof Saga, Translated by Rev. R. Muckleston, M.A ' Our wills are ours we know not how. Our wills are ours to make them thine.' Tennyson. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. 1. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED 13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, 1890. AU rights reserved. DEDICATED, WITH LOVING REVERENCE, TO MY DEAREST AUNT, MES. WESTON. CONTENTS or THE FIRST VOLUME. Chapter piuE I. ENGLISH VISITORS ..... 1 II. THE VILLA IN KALVEDALEN . ... 21 III. BLANCHE ....... 50 IV. FAREWELL TO NORWAY . . . . 77 V. IN A LONDON DRAWING-ROOM ... 90 VI. RESTRAINED . . . . . .114 VII. ROWAN TREE HOUSE ..... 129 VIII. 'WHY V ..... 151 IX. THE OLD PROBLEM ..... 181 X. CHANGED FOE THE WORSE . . . .199 XI. A CRISIS 224 XII. A GLIMPSE OF HOME LIFE . . . .238 XIII. AN ORDEAL A HARDY NORSEMAN. CHAPTEE I. ENGLISH VISITORS. ' Think you, 'mid all this mighty sum Of things for ever speaking, That nothing of itself will come, But we must still be seeking ?' Wordsworth. ' You say your things are all ready, Cecil ?

Then I'll just go below and do up my Gladstone and put it in your cabin. We shall be at Bergen before long, they say.' The speaker was a young Englishman of three or four-and-twenty, and the sister addressed by him was still in the first flush of girlhood, having but a few days before celebrated her nineteenth birthday. VOL. I. b ' Let me see to your bag, Roy,' she ex claimed. ' It is a shame that you should miss this lovely bit of the fjord, and I shall do it in half the time.' ' The conceit of women ! ' he exclaimed with a smile, in which brotherly love and the spirit of teasing were about equally blended. ' No, no, Cis ; I'm not going to let you spoil me. I shall be up again in ten minutes. Have you not made any friends here ? Is there no one on deck you can talk to 1 ' ' I don't want to talk,' said Cecil. ' Truth to tell, I am longing to get away from all these English people.

Chapter II. The Villa In Kalvedalen

' Ah, yes ! all preciousness To mortal hearts is guarded by a fear.' The Spanish Gypsy. Herr Falck lived in one of the pretty, unpretentious houses in Kalvedalen, which are chiefly owned by the rich merchants of Bergen. The house stood on the right hand side of the road, surrounded by a pretty little garden. It was painted a light brown colour, and, like most Bergen houses, it was built of wood. In the win dows one could see flowers, and beyond them white muslin curtains, for æsthe ticism had not yet penetrated to Norway. The dark tiled roof was outlined against a wooded hill rising immediately behind, with here and there grey rocks peeping through the summer green of the trees, while in front the chief windows looked on to a pretty terrace with carefully kept flower-beds, then down the wooded hill side to the lake below — the Lungegaards vand, with purple and grey heights on the faither shore, and on one side a break in the chain of mountains and a lovely stretch of open country.

To the extreme left was the giant Ulriken, sometimes shining and glistening, sometimes frowning and dark. but always beautiful ; while to the right you caught a glimpse of Bergen, with its quaint cathedral tower, and away in the distance the fjord like a shining silver band in the sun. As Frithiof walked along the grassy terrace he could hear sounds of music floating from the house ; some one was playing a most inspiriting waltz, and as soon as he had reached the open French window of his father's study a quaint pair of dancers became visible. A slim little girl of ten years old, with very short pet ticoats, and very long golden hair braided into a pigtail, held by the front paws a THE VILLA TN KALVEPALEN. 23 fine Esquimaux dog, who seemed quite to enter into the fun, and danced and capered most cleverly, obediently keeping his long, pointed nose over his partner's shoulder.

The effect was so comical that Frithiof stood laughingly by to watch the per formance for fully half a minute, then, unable to resist his own desire to dance, he unceremoniously called Lillo, the dog, away, and whirled off little Swanhild in the rapid waltz which Norwegians delight in. The languid grace of a London ball-room would have had no charms for him ; his dancing was full of fire and impetuosity, and Swanhild, too, danced very well ; it had come to them both as naturally as breathing. ' This is better than Lillo,' admitted the child. ' Somehow he's so dreadfully heavy to get round. Have the English people come ? What are they like ?' ' Oh, they're middling,' said Frithiof, ' all except the niece, and she is charming.' ' Is she j^retty V ' Prettier than any one you ever saw in yonr life.' 'Not prettier than Sigrid?' said the little sister, confidently. ' Wait till you see,' said Frithiof. ' She is a brunette and perfectly lovely.

There now ! ' as the music ceased, ' Sigrid has felt her left ear burning, and knows that we are speaking evil of her. Let us come to confess.' With his arm still round the child, he entered the pretty, bright-looking room to the right. Sigrid was still at the piano, but she had heard his voice, and had turned round with eager expectation in her face. The brother and sister were very much alike ; each had the same well cut Greek features, but Frithiof's face was broader and stronger, and you could tell at a glance that he was the more intellectual of the two. On the other hand, Sigrid possessed a delightful fund of quiet com mon sense, and her judgment was seldom at fault, while, like most Norwegian girls, she had a most charmingly simple manner, and an unaffected light-heartedness which it did one good to see. 'Well! what news?' she exclaimed. ' Have they come all right ?

Are they nice ? ' ' Nice is not the word ! Charming1 ! beautiful ! To-morrow you will see if 1 have spoken too strongly.' ' He says she is even prettier than you, Sigrid,' said Swanhild, mischievously. ' Prettier than any one we ever saw !' 'She? Which of them?' ' Miss Blanche Morgan, the daughter of the head ofthe firm, you know.' ' And the other one ? ' ' I hardly know, I didn't look at her much ; the others all seemed to me much like ordinary English tourists. But she ! ■ — well, you will see to-morrow7.' ' How I wish they were coming to night ! you make me quite curious. And father seems so excited about their coming. I have not seen him so much pleased about anything for a long time.' ' Is he at home ? ' ' No, he went for a walk, his head was bad again. That is the only thing that troubles me about him, his headaches seem to have become almost chronic this last year.' A shade came over her bright face, and Frithiof, too, looked grave. ' He works very much too hard,' he said ; ' but as soon as I come of age and am taken into partnership he will be more free to take a thorough rest.

At present I might just as well be in Germany as far as work goes, for he will hardly let me do anything to help him.' ' Here he comes ! here he comes ! ' cried Swanhild, who had wandered away to the window7, and with one accord they all ran out to meet the head of the house, Lillo bounding on in front and springing up at his master with a lovinopreetino'. o o o Herr Falck was a very pleasant-looking man of about fifty ' he had the same well-chiselled features as Frithiof, the same broad forehead, clearly marked, level brows, and flexible lips, but his eyes had more of grey and less of blue in them, and a prac tised observer would have detected in their keen glance an anxiety which could THE VILLA TN KALVEDALEN. 27 not wholly disguise itself. His hair and whiskers were iron-grey, and he was an inch or two shorter than his son.

They all stood talking together at the door, the English visitors still forming the staple of conversation, and the anxiety giving place to eager hope in Herr Falck's eyes as Frithiof once more sang the praises of Blanche Morgan. ' Have they formed any plan for their tour ?' he asked. ' No ; they mean to talk it over with you and get your advice. They all pro fessed to have a horror of Baedeker, thou;>ii even with your help I don't think they will get far without him.' ' It is certain that they will not want to stay very long in our Bergen,' said Herr Falck ; ' the English never do. What should you say now if you all took your summer outing at once and settled down at Ulvik or Balholm for a few weeks, then you would be able to see a little of our friends and could start them well on their tour ? ' 'What a delightful plan, little father !' cried Sigrid ; ' only you must come too, or we shall none of us enjoy it.' ' I would run over for the Sunday, per haps — that would be as much as I could manage ; but Frithiof will be there to take care of you.

What should you want with a careworn old man like me. now that he is at home again !' ' You fish for compliments, little father,' said Sigrid, slipping her arm within his and giving him one of those mute caresses which are so much more eloquent than words. ' But, quite between ourselves, though Frithiof is all very well, I shan't enjoy it a bit without you.' ' Yes, yes, father dear,' said Swanhild, ' indeed you must come, for Frithiof he will be just no good at all; he will be sure to • lance always with the pretty Miss Morgan, and to row her about on the fjord all day, just as he did those pretty girls at Nor heimsund and Faleide.' The innocent earnestness of the child's tone made them all laugh, and Frithiof, vowing vengeance on her for her speech. chased her round and round the garden, their laughter floating back to Herr Falck and Sigrid as they entered the house. ' The little minx !' said Herr Falck, ' how innocently she said it, too !

I don't think our boy is such a desperate flirt, though. As far as I remember, there was nothing more than a sort of boy-and-girl friendship at either place.' ' Oh, no,' said Sigrid, smiling. ' Frithiof was too much of a schoolboy, every one liked him and he liked every one. I don't think he is the sort of man to fall in love easily.' ' No ; but when it does come it will be a serious affair. I very much wish to see him happily married.' ' Oh, father ! surely not yet. He is so young, we can't spare him yet.' Herr Falck threw himself back in his armchair and mused for a fewminutes. ' One need not necessarily lose him,' he replied ; ' and you know, Sigrid, I am a be liever in early marriages — at least for my son, I will not say too much about you, little woman, for as a matter of fact I don't know how I should ever spare you.' ' Don't be afraid, little father ; you may be very sure I shan't marry till I see a reasonable chance of being happier than I am at home with you.

And when will that be, do you think ?' He stroked her golden hair tenderly. ' Not just yet, Sigrid, let us hope — not just yet. As to our Frithiof, shall I tell of the palace in cloudland I am building for him ? ' ' Not that he should marry the pretty Miss Morgan, as Swanhild calls her '. ' said Sigrid, with a strange sinking at the heart. ' Why not ? I hear that she is a charming girl, both clever and beautiful, and, in deed, it seems to me that he is quite disposed to fall in love with her at first sight. Of course, were he not properly in love I should never wish him to marry, but I own that a union between the two houses would be a great pleasure to me — a great relief He sighed, and for the first time the anxious look in his eyes attracted Sigrid's notice. ' Father dear,' she exclaimed, ' won't you tell me what is troubling you ?

There is something, I think. Tell me, little father.' He looked startled, and a slight flush spread over his face, but when he spoke his voice was reassuring. ' A business man often has anxieties which cannot be spoken of, dear child. God knows they weigh lightly enough on some men ; I think I am growing old, Sigrid, and perhaps I have never learnt to take things so easily as most merchants do.' ' Why, father, you were only fifty last birthday ; you must not talk yet of growing old. How do other men learn, do you think, to take things lightly ?' 'By refusing to listen to their own conscience,' said Herr Falck, with sudden vehemence. ' By allowing themselves to hold one standard of honour in private life and a very different standard in business transactions. Oh, Sigrid ! I would give a great deal to find some other opening for Frithiof.

I dread the life for him.' ' Do you think it is really so hard to be strictly honourable in business life ? And yet it is a life that must be lived ; and is it not better that such a man as Frithiof should take it up — a man with such a high sense of honour ? ' ' You don't know7 what business men have to stand against,' said Herr Falck. ' Frithiof is a good, honest fellow, but as yet he has seen nothing of life. And I tell you, child, we often fail in our strongest point.' He rose from his chair and paced the room. It seemed to Sigrid that a nameless shadow had fallen on their sunny home. She was for the first time in her hfe afraid, though the fear was vague and undefined. ' But there, little one,' said her father, turning towards her again, ' you must not be worried. I get nervous and depressed, that is all.

As I told you, I am growing old.' ' Frithiof would like to help you more if you would let him,' said Sigrid, rather wistfully. ' He was saying so just now7.' ' And so he shall in the autumn. He is a good lad, and if all goes well I hope he will some day be my right hand in the business, but I wish him to have a few months' holiday first. And there is this one thing, Sigrid, which I can tell you, if you really want to know about my anxieties.' ' Indeed I do, little father,' she said, eagerly. ' There are many matters which you would not understand even could I speak of them • but you know, of course, that I am agent in Norway for the firm of Morgan Brothers. Well, a rumour has reached me that they intend to break off the connexion and to send out the eldest son to set up a branch at Stavanger.

It is a mere rumour, and reached me quite accidentally. I very much hope it may not be true, but there is no denying that Stavanger would be in most ways better suited for their purpose ; VOL. i. D in fact, the friend who told me of the rumour said that they felt now that it had been a mistake all along to have the agency here, and that they had only done it be cause they knew Bergen and knew me.' ' Why is Stavanger a better place for it?' ' It is better because most of the salmon and lobsters are caught in the neighbour hood of Stavanger, and all the mackerel, too, to the south of Bergen. I very much hope the rumour is not true, for it would be a great blow to me to lose the English connexion. Still it is not unlikely, and the times are hard now — very hard.' ' And you think your palace in cloud land for Frithiof would prevent Mr. Morgan from breaking the connexion ? ' ' Yes ; a marriage between the two houses would be a great thing; it would make this new idea unlikely, if not altogether impossible.

I am thankful that there seems now some chance of it. Let the two meet naturally and learn to know each other. I will not say a word to Frithiof, it would only do harm ; but to you, Sigrid, I confess that my heart is set on this plan. If I could for one moment make you see the future as I see it, you would feel with me how important the matter is.' At this moment Frithiof himself entered, and the conversation was abruptly ended. ' Well, have you decided ? ' he asked, in his eager, boyish way. ' Is it to be Ulvik or Balholm ? What ! You were not even talking about that. Oh, I know what it was then. Sigrid was deep in the discussion of to-morrow's dinner. I will tell you what to do, abolish the romekolle, and let us be English to the backbone. Now I think of it, Mr. Morgan is not unlike a w7alking sirloin with a plum-pudding head.

There is your bill of fare, so waste no more time.' The brother and sister went off together, laughing and talking ; but when the door closed behind them the master of the house buried his face in his hands, and for many minutes sat motionless. What troubled thoughts, what wearing anxieties filled his mind, Sigrid little guessed. It was, after all, a mere surface difficulty of which he had spoken ; of the real strain which was killing him by inches he could not say a word to any mortal being, though now in his great misery he instinctively prayed. ' My poor children ! ' he groaned. ' Oh, God, spare them from this shame and ruin which haunts me! I have tried to be up right and prudent; it was only this once that I was rash. Give me success for their sakes, oh, God! The selfish and unscrupulous flourish on all sides.

Give me this one success ! Let me not blight their whole lives ! ' But the next day. when he went forward to greet his English guests, it would have been difficult to recognise him as the bur dened, carewrorn man from whose lips had been wrung that confession and that prayer. All his natural courtesy and brightness had returned to him ; if he thought of his busi ness at all, he thought of it in the most san guine way possible, and the Morgans saw in him only an older edition of Frithiof, and wondered how he had managed to pre serve such buoyant spirits in the cares and uncertainties of mercantile life. The two o'clock dinner passed off well ; Sigrid, who was a clever little housekeeper, had scouted Frithiof's suggestion as to the roast beef and plum-pudding, and had carefully devised a thoroughly Norwegian repast. ' For I thought,' she explained after wards to Blanche, when the two girls had made friends, ' that if I went to England I should wish to see your home life just exactly as it really is, and so I have ordered the sort of dinner we should naturally have, and did not, as Frithiof advised, leave out the romekolle.' ' Was that the stuff like curds and whey ? ' asked Blanche, who was full of eager interest in everything. ' Yes ; it is sour cream with bread crumbs grated over it.

We always have a plateful each at dinner; it is quite one of our customs. But everything here is very simple of course, not grand as with you ; we do not keep a great number of servants, or dine late, or dress for the evening — here there is nothing ' she hesitated for a word, then in her pretty foreign English added, ' nothing ceremonious.' ' That is just the charm of it all,' said Blanche, in her sweet, gracious way. ' It is all so real and simple and fresh, and I think it was delightful of you to know how much best we should like to have a glimpse of your real home-hfe instead of a stupid party. Now mamma cares for nothing but just to make a great show, it doesn't matter whether the visitors really like it or not.' Sigrid felt a momentary pang of doubt ; she had fallen in love with Blanche Morgan the moment she saw her, but it somehow hurt her to hear the English girl criticise her own mother.

To Sigrid's loyal nature there was something out of tune in that ast remark. ' Perhaps you and your cousin would like to see over the house,' she said, by way of making a diversion. ' Though I must tell you that we are considered here in Bergen to be rather English in some points. That is because of my father's business connexion with England, I suppose. Here, you see, in his study he has a real English fireplace ; we all like it much better than the stoves, and some day I should like to have them in the other rooms as well.' ' But there is one thing very un-English,' said Blanche. ' There are no passages ; in stead, I see, all your rooms open out of each other. Such numbers of lovely plants, too, in every direction ; we are not so artistic, we stand them all in prim rows in a con servatory.

This, too, is quite new to me. What a good idea!' and she went up to examine a prettily worked sling fastened to the wall, and made to hold newspapers. She was too polite, of course, to say what really struck her — that the whole house seemed curiously simple and bare, and that she had imagined that one of the leading merchants of Bergen would live in greater style. As a matter of fact, you might, as Cyril expressed it, have bought the whole place for an old song ; and though there was an air of comfort and good taste about the rooms, and a certain indescribable charm, they were evidently destined for use and not for show, and with the exception of some fine old Norwegian silver and a few good pictures, Herr Falck did not possess a single thing of value. Contrasted with the huge and elabo rately furnished house in Lancaster Gate, with its lavishly strewn knick-knacks, its profusion of all the beautiful things that money could buy, the Norwegian villa seemed poor indeed, yet there was some thing about it which took Blanche's fancy.

Later on, when the whole party had started for a walk, and when Frithiof and Blanche had quite naturally drifted into a tete-a-tete, she said sometliing to this effect. ' I begin not to wonder that you are so happy,' she added ; ' the whole atmosphere of the place is happiness. I wish you could teach us the secret of it.' ' Have you then only the gift of making other people happy ? ' said Frithiof. ' That seems strange.' ' You will perhaps think me very dis contented,' she said, with a pathetic little sadness in her tone which touched him, ' but seeing how fresh and simple and happy your life is out here makes me more out of heart than ever with my own home. You must not think I am grumbling, they are very good to me, you know, and give me everything that money can buy ; but somehow there is so much that jars on one, and here there seems nothing but kindli ness and ease and peace.' ' I am glad you like our life,' he said, 'so very glad.' And as she told him more of her home and her London life, and of how little it satisfied her, her words, and still more her manner and her sweet eyes, seemed to weave a sort of spell about him, seemed to lure him on into a wonderful future, and to waken in him a new Use. 'I like him,' thought Blanche to her self. 'Perhaps after all this Norwegian tour will not be so dull.

I like to see his eyes light up so eagerly ; he really has beautiful eyes ! I almost thmk — I really almost think I am just a little bit in love w7ith him.' At this moment they happened to over take two English tourists on the road ; as they passed on in front of them Frithiof, with native courtesy, took off his hat. ' You surely don't know that man ? — he is only a shopkeeper,' said Blanche, not even taking the trouble to lower her voice. Frithiof crimsoned to the roots of his hair. 'I am afraid he must have heard what you said,' he exclaimed, quickening his pace in the discomfort of the realisation. ' I do not know7 him certainly, but one is bound to be courteous to strangers.' ' I know exactly who he is,' said Blanche, ' for he and his sister were on the steamer, and Cyril found out all about them.

He is Boniface, the musicshop man.' Frithiof was saved a reply, for just then they reached their destination, and rejoined the rest of the party, who were clustered together on the hill-side enjoying a most lovely view. Down below them, sheltered by a great craggy mountain on the farther side, lay a little lonely lake, so weird-looking, so desolate, that it was hard to believe it to be within an easy walk of the town. Angry-looking clouds were beginning to gather in the sky, a purple gloom seemed to overspread the mountain and the lake, and something of its gravity seemed also to have fallen upon Frithiof. He had found the first imper fection in his ideal, yet it had only served to show him how great a power, how strange an influence she possessed over him. He knew now that, for the first time in his life, he was blindly, desperately in love. ' Why, it is beginning to rain,' said Mr. Morgan. ' I almost think we had better be turning back, Herr Falck.

It has been a most enjoyable little walk ; but if we can reach the hotel before it settles in for a wet evening, why, all the better.' ' The rain is the great drawback to Bergen,' said Herr Falck. ' At Christiania they have a saying that when you go to Bergen it rains three hundred and sixty six days out of the year. But after all, one becomes very much accustomed to it.' On the return walk the conversation was more general, and though Frithiof walked beside Blanche, he said very little. His mind was full of the new idea which had just dawned upon him, and he heard her merry talk with Sigrid and Swanhild like a man in a dream. Before long, much to his discomfort, he saw in front of them the two English tourists, and though his mind was all in a tumult with this new7 perception of his love for Blanche, yet the longing to make up for her ill-judged re mark, the desire to prove that he did not share in her prejudice, was powerful too.

He fancied it was chiefly to avoid them that the Englishman turned towards the bank just as they passed to gather a flower which grew7 high above his head. 'What can this be, Cecil ?' he remarked. ' Allow me, sir,' said Frithiof, observing that it was just out of the stranger's reach. He was two or three inches taller, and, with an adroit spring, was able to bring down the flower in triumph. By this time the others were some little way in advance. He looked rather wistfully after Blanche, and fancied disapproval in her erect, trim little figure. ' This is the Linnæa,' he explained. ' You will find a great deal of it about. It was the flower, you know, which Linnæus chose to name after himself. Some say he showed his modesty in choosing so common and insignificant a plant, but it always seems to me that he showed his good taste.