About a half a mile from the valley—­the name of which we shall conceal, as many personages who are to play a part in our little story are still living—­was situated the estate of Almvik, which the present proprietor Fabian H——­, had purchased one year before, and had immediately removed thither with his family.

Mr. H——­, and above all his puissant wife Mistress Ulrica Eugenia, her proper name, but which she had afterwards tortured into the more refined patronymic, Ulrique Eugenie—­were individuals who moved in the higher classes of society, at least he who should endeavor to prove to the contrary would find the task a thankless one.

Mr. Fabian H——­, imagined himself a second Brutus, that is to say; he was fully convinced that the time would certainly arrive when he should arouse himself from his present listlessness; when he should be released from the thraldom of his wife, and awaken to renewed strength and vigor.  But it was much to be feared that poor Brutus never would realize his bright anticipations of liberty.

Mistress Ulrica Eugenia was characterized by a strong desire to assist in the work of emancipating women from the tyranny of men, and that she might forward the good work she had entirely set at naught the command that a wife should obey her husband; she openly declared that the ancient law which compelled the woman to subserve to the man, was but a concoction of man himself, that the Bible itself never contained such an absurd command, but that the translators, who she triumphantly affirmed were men, had placed that law in the scripture, merely to suit their own selfish ends.  She also affirmed that she would stake her life upon the issue that she would not find, even if she should search the scriptures through, such an absurd command.  And she was right. She would not find it.

In the immediate neighborhood of Almvik, Mr. H——­ was reverenced as a wealthy nobleman, and a man of power.  He wished to be considered a hospitable man, and frequently rejoiced his neighbors with invitations to visit his beautiful estate.  To him strangers were godsends.  He entertained them to the best of his ability, invited the neighbors to see them, and although his little soirees were very pleasant, still, as the guests were drawn from all classes of society, many amusing scenes were enacted, in all of which, Mistress Ulrica Eugenia performed a prominent and independent part.

Although Mrs. Ulrica had liberated herself from all obedience to her legal master, and had in fact assumed the reins of government herself, she nevertheless possessed some, if not a great deal of affection for the rosy cheeks and sleepy eyes of her husband, and at the same time she kept a watchful eye upon those whom she suspected of partaking with her in this sentiment.  Not only was Mrs. H——­ occasionally aggravated by the pangs of jealousy, but she was also tormented by the thought that her husband entirely confided in her own fidelity, thus at once cutting off the possibility of a love quarrel and a reconciliation.