pastor would say when he published the banns, what the people in his home district would say when some day he would come along with his own horse and wagon and it would be noised around that he had six horses in his stable and ten of the finest cows.  To be sure, when he saw Elsie lolling around lazily there were blots on his calculation.  He realized that she was no housekeeper, and was moreover queer and extravagant.  The last fault she might overcome, he thought, if she had a husband.  He could afford to have servants then; other folks got along without the wife doing anything, and with such wealth it wouldn’t matter much.  There was something the matter with every woman; he’d never heard of any that was so perfect that one wouldn’t wish for anything else.  Rich, rich!  That was the thing.  And still, when he saw Elsie, his calculations came to a sudden stop.  This fading, languishing, sleepy thing seemed too unpalatable to him.  When she touched him with her clammy hands he shuddered; he felt as if he must wipe the spot she had touched.  And then when he heard her talk, so affected and stupid, it almost drove him out of the room, and he had to reflect:  No, you can’t stand living with this woman; every word she said would shame you.  But when he was away from Elsie again he saw the handsome farm, heard the money clink, imagined himself looked up to, and he felt as if Elsie were not so bad after all; so he would gradually persuade himself that perhaps she was cleverer than she seemed, and, if she loved a man and he talked sensibly to her, something might yet be done with her, and with a proper man she might yet turn out a very sensible woman.

All this merely went on in Uli’s head; but murder will out.  The trip had made Uli and Elsie more familiar; they used a different tone in speaking to each other, Elsie regarded him with the peculiar glance of a certain understanding.  Uli, to be sure, tried to avoid her eyes, especially when they were in sight of Freneli; for just as Elsie’s riches allured him more strongly every day, so Freneli seemed to him ever handier and prettier.  The best thing, he often thought, would be to have Freneli stay with them and manage the household.  But Elsie ran after Uli more than ever, and when on a Sunday afternoon she was alone with him for an instant in the living-room, she would not rest until they got to kissing.  She would have given anything to take another drive with him; but she did not know where to go, and when they went to market her father and mother went along.  Just the same, if Uli had had bad intentions and had wanted to secure a marriage by an evil road—­of which there are cases enough with men worse than Uli—­Elsie would have given plenty of opportunity, nor would she have done anything to shield herself.  “Uli, don’t be so timid!” she would perhaps have said.  But Uli was honest and desired no evil; so he shunned such opportunities, and often avoided the chances Elsie gave him, much preferring to deserve