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The old farmer went on, "Welcome them, Thelma mine!--friends are scarce
in these days, and we must not be ungrateful for good company. What!
what! I know honest lads when I see them! Smile on them, my Thelma!--and
then we will warm their hearts with another cup of wine."
As he spoke, the maiden advanced with a graceful, even noble air, and
extending both her hands to each of the visitors in turn, she said--
"I am your servant, friends; in entering this house you do possess it.
Peace and heart's greeting!"
The words were a literal translation of a salutation perfectly common in
many parts of Norway--a mere ordinary expression of politeness; but,
uttered in the tender, penetrating tones, of the most musical voice they
had ever heard, and accompanied by the warm, frank, double handclasp of
those soft, small, daintily shaped hands, the effect on the minds of the
generally self-possessed, fashionably bred young men of the world, was
to confuse and bewilder them to the last degree.


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