Beside him, almost, there walked a respectable family—­he knew well who they were—­with a couple of handsome daughters, in light dresses, who had grown up since he last saw them, and a younger brother whom he did not remember.  The foreign, black-bearded sailor, with his fine cloth clothes, and his patent gold watch-chain, seemed to excite their curiosity; while he on his side was thinking how they would fly from him, as if a wolf had suddenly appeared in their midst, if they had any conception of the life that he had been leading for years, half-a-day of which would have filled them with more horror than they had ever imagined.  They would not understand it if it was described to them, and the description would be too foul for their ears.  As he quietly followed the stream up the hill, it seemed as if all the sunny houses in his beautiful native town were crying out against him, and asking whether it was possible that a man from the Stars and Stripes could be permitted to go to church as well as other people; and on entering the building he had to summon up all his self-command—­he had a feeling that he was violating the sanctity of the place.

He took his seat in the last pew close to the door, and watched the people passing up the aisle.  It was like a dream; they all seemed creatures of a purer world than his.  The organ commenced to play, the singing was begun, and he leaned his head forward on his hands, completely overcome, and trying to conceal his sobs.  In this position he remained during the greater part of the service, his past life coming up, scene by scene, before him.  What a gulf he felt there was between the present condition of his mind and what it had been in the days when as a boy or lad he had gone to church like the rest.  He had been familiar with more murder and blasphemy than the whole congregation together could conceive; and the simple faith he had once possessed he had been robbed of, he feared irrecoverably.  His eyes flashed then with a sudden wildness as he thought who it was that had brought him to this; and it was with a deep hatred in his heart to one of the two at least, that he left the church.  In a couple who were coming out at the same time, he recognised Captain Beck and his wife, and the sight added fuel to the flames.  He hastened on; and was hardly to be recognised as the same man who had gone up the same way so quietly two hours before.

He had meant to go over at once to Sandvigen to see his father, but he thought that before going it would be as well to find out for certain all about Elizabeth; and his landlady seemed as likely a person to be able to satisfy him as any one.  He remembered well that sharp, bright-eyed little woman, and knew that she was a regular magpie for chatter, and for repeating the gossip of the town.

At that time of the day on Sunday there were no other customers in the house, and while she was busying herself with preparations for his dinner, he asked casually if Captain Beck’s son, the one in the navy, was married?