Other thoughts, too, tortured and harrassed his brain, and as he again
took the oars and plied them wearily through the water, he was in an
exceedingly unchristian humor. Though a specious hypocrite, he was no
fool. He knew the ways of men and women, and he thoroughly realized the
present position of affairs. He was quite aware of Thelma Gueldmar's
exceptional beauty,--and he felt pretty certain that no man could look
upon her without admiration. But up to this time, she had been, as it
were, secluded from all eyes,--a few haymakers and fishermen were the
only persons of the male sex who had ever been within the precincts of
Olaf Gueldmar's dwelling, with the exception of himself,
Dyceworthy,--who, being armed with a letter of introduction from the
actual minister of Bosekop, whose place, he, for the present, filled,
had intruded his company frequently and persistently on the _bonde_ and
his daughter, though he knew himself to be entirely unwelcome. He had
gathered together as much as he could, all the scraps of information
concerning them; how Olaf Gueldmar was credited with having made away
with his wife by foul means; how nobody even knew where his wife had
come from; how Thelma had been mysteriously educated, and had learned
strange things concerning foreign lands, which no one else in the place
understood anything about; how she was reputed to be a witch, and was
believed to have cast her spells on the unhappy Sigurd, to the
destruction of his reason,--and how nobody could tell where Sigurd
himself had come from.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207