Happily for him, the doctor’s two friends never lost their temper.  The professor was habitually cool, and the lawyer severely skeptical.

“You are right,” the first would say gravely, in answer to the most severe reproaches.

“My dear Schwaryencrona, you know very well you are only losing your time lecturing me,” Mr. Bredejord would say, laughing.  “All my life I have made the greatest blunders whenever I play whist, and the worst of it is, I do not improve.”  What could any one do with two such hardened sinners?

The doctor was compelled to discontinue his criticisms, but it was only to renew them a quarter of an hour later, for he was incorrigible.

It happened, however, that this evening he lost every game, and his consequent ill-humor made his criticisms very severe upon his two companions, and even upon the “dummy.”

But the professor coolly acknowledged his faults, and the lawyer answered his most bitter reproaches by jokes.

“Why should I alter my play, when I win by playing badly, and you lose by following your correct rules?” he said to the doctor.

They played until ten o’clock.  Then Kajsa made the tea in a magnificent “samovar,” and served it with pretty gracefulness; then she discreetly disappeared.  Soon Dame Greta appeared, and, calling Erik, she conducted him to the apartment which had been prepared for him.  It was a pretty little room, clean and well furnished, on the second floor.

The three friends were now left alone.

“Now, at last, you can tell us who this young fisherman from Noroe is, who reads Gibbon in the original text?” said Mr. Bredejord, as he put some sugar into his second cup of tea.  “Or is it a forbidden subject, which it is indiscreet for me to mention?”

“There is nothing mysterious about the matter, and I will willingly tell you Erik’s history, for I know that I can rely upon your discretion,” answered Dr. Schwaryencrona.

“Ah!  I knew that he had a history,” said the lawyer, seating himself comfortably in his arm-chair.  “We will listen, dear doctor.  I assure you that your confidence will not be misplaced.  I confess this youth arouses my curiosity like a problem.”

“He is, indeed, a living problem,” answered the doctor, flattered by the curiosity of his friend.  “A problem which I hope to be able to solve.  But I must tell you all about it, and see if you think as I do.”

The doctor settled himself comfortably, and began by telling them that he had been struck by Erik’s appearance in the school at Noroe, and by his unusual intelligence.  He had made inquiries about him, and he related all that Mr. Malarius and Mr. Hersebom had told.  He omitted none of the details.  He spoke of the buoy, of the name of “Cynthia,” of the little garments which Dame Katrina had shown him, of the coral ornament, of the device upon it, and of the character of the letters.