Page:Love's trilogy.djvu/320

 310 'GOD'S PEACE'

into the harbour at five o'clock, and one always had to be prepared at that hour. It sometimes happened that one of the fogs, a speciality of the fjord, would draw its impenetrable veil from shore to shore, which meant that the waiting lasted for hours. We children would often run forwards and backwards five or six times to report to our parents the state of affairs. At last the signal goes up on Fjord Hill, the fog lifts, and the steamer, so anxiously looked for, arrives, bringing aunts, friends, and presents, good things to eat, and an endless vista of pleasures.

It happens to-day, while I am sitting like this recalling old memories, that the fog suddenly falls across the fjord, just as the steamer turns the last point. A grey wall slides down in front of me, and I have to pull myself together, before I quite under- stand what has happened. Far out from the fjord I hear the steamer's fog-signal, which sounds warn- ing and plaintive. But it is evident that the cap- tain, being so near the harbour, is determined to steer his way in. Gradually the fog-signal sounds nearer and nearer, and one can see the top of the masts above the mist. When, just as suddenly as it came, the fog disappears. Is it an illusion? There, on the upper deck of the steamer, which is now only some few hundred yards from land, stands a tall young woman in a long, dark cloak. Do my eyes deceive me ? Is it really she ? Without caring for either Peter or Paul, I rush down to the landing- stage. The young woman has now seen me, and