“How you go on!” said Alete.  “Must I, because it has seemed fit to our venerable prelate to make you a vicar—­(after all it is a sensible appointment)—­put on my wedding dress and go to the altar?  Do you know I expect a letter from Hernosand or Stockholm!  Do you know------”

The artless girl, however, sought in vain to conceal, beneath pretended laughter, her deep emotion.  She was unable to finish her sentence.  She threw herself in her father’s arms, then into the old priest’s, and gave her hand with dignity to Eric.  She said: 

“Whenever you please, dear Eric, though I am much amazed.  I trust you will never have occasion to repent having given me your love and honor.”

This episcopal letter the pastor had received on the previous evening, and he had been courageous enough to keep the secret until Christmas night, in order to give it more solemnity.  It was now the sole subject of conversation, and they talked only of preparations for the marriage, and of the day on which it was to be celebrated.  At the instance of Alete he consented to prolong the delay, and the wedding was postponed for a fortnight.

“Confess,” said Alete to Ireneus, “that you were fortunate in arriving here in the middle of winter, when you could witness our dark tempests, our Christmas festivals, and be present at a Swedish wedding.  You will then have only to behold our delicious summer nights; and then, when you return to France, you will be able to speak more learnedly of Sweden than other travelers, who wrote long volumes about it.”

“I owe to this country some of the pleasantest hours of my life.  I owe to it a calmness which I cannot any longer find in France.  I am indebted to it for good and healthful emotions.  I owe to it, exile as I am, a tender asylum, a family; and I shall feel your wedding-day one of the happiest of my life.”

On the very next day all the house of M. de Vermondans was occupied with preparations for the approaching marriage.  Dressmakers were busy, and cabinet-makers were preparing furniture, platforms, &c., for the wedding-day.

Alete had enough to do to watch over the different works.  Smiling and merry as she used to be, a change had come over her, and she seemed already dignified and matronly.

Ebba assisted her with great devotion, and ceased to give Ireneus lessons in Swedish.

M. de Vermondans smoked his pipe with an air of thought, and sometimes of sorrow, for the idea of separation from his daughter weighed heavily on him, much as he desired that she should marry so near him.