“Is not the entire room large enough for you to kiss in without my seeing you?” said Carl, harshly, “I do not wish you to do so right before me.”

“Perhaps you envy me,” said Ragnar, with a laugh.  He had not given Carl’s expression a serious thought.

Carl lifted himself upon his elbow, and gazing full in his brother’s eyes, he replied slowly and firmly, “Yes.”

“Why do you, Carl?” inquired Ragnar.

“Because I do not wish any body to kiss Magde—­is it not so, Magde?  You well know how I behaved myself when Mr. Fabian H——­ wanted to buy a kiss of you.”

“What!  I believe the poor boy is mad!  What!  Buy a kiss of Magde!  Poor Carl!”

“Am I speaking false, Magde?  Answer me.”

“O, Carl, how strangely you tell your story!” exclaimed Magde, “you ought first to have related how it happened, and—­”

Magde flushed and paled alternately, and in her excitement could scarcely express herself.

“Can there be any truth in this?” said Ragnar, and his eyes sparkled.

Magde had now recovered her presence of mind, and related, without concealing a single fact, all that had happened between herself and Mr. Fabian.

“I am now firmly convinced that this—­this—­no matter, that Mr. H——­ was the prime cause of our father’s imprisonment.”

“He was,” interrupted old Mr. Lonner.  “I am as firmly convinced of it, as I am that the young man of whom I have spoken was the cause of my release.  I wish you were acquainted with Mr. Gottlieb.  He is a worthy young man.”

“I will tell him so in the letter I shall write him; but what if he entertained the same desire that influenced Mr. H——.”

“Fear not for me, at least,” replied Magde, casting a roguish look towards Nanna.

“Ah! that is singular indeed; but after all Nanna will bear a pretty close inspection—­but I cannot drive that Mr. Fabian from my mind.”

“First you must tell us some of your adventures,” and Magde’s countenance wore such an entreating expression that her husband understood her immediately; and therefore as long as he remained in the presence of his father, and his sister and brother, he continued speaking of all the singular things he had seen and heard, which was listened to by a pleased and expectant audience.

At length the time arrived when the husband and wife were at liberty to interchange their thoughts freely; the children had been nicely tucked in their little beds, and Ragnar and Magde alone occupied their private apartment.

“Now, dear Magde, now you must give me a good kiss.  God bless you for this happy moment.  After tossing six months upon the ocean, it is a joy indeed to return to one’s own home and wife.”

“Is it true indeed, dear Ragnar, that you love me now as you did when we were married?”

“Did you find no four-leaved clover last summer, that you ask me this question?”