The Road Leads On | Page 4

downstairs, that she had taken to singing rather
frequently of late, and that she was wearing a little gold medallion on a

black velvet ribbon about her neck, that little child of nature! Further, if
the truth be told, there had once been a desperate embrace involving a
kiss and a fumbling of hands one evening out in the smokehouse with
Theodore spying on the pair. And last of all, there had been a repetition
of the affair one moonlight night right there on the wharf in front of the
warehouse door. But these were all, so really what proof did he have!
Father Theodore reasoned it out somewhat as follows: In any event, it
wasn't a girl this time and even if everything had not been exactly right
and proper, the sin was not on his soul.
Time passed and a governess was brought in for the children, a
lady--again if the truth be told--with whom Theodore might sport about
a bit and to whom he might pay some open attention in order to prove
that he, too, was a man of parts and to indicate to his wife that he could
play the same game. Of course he could--just see there! He escorted the
lady to church without his wife and, when Christmas came, he
presented the lady with a sterling silver napkin-ring. Please, now let his
wife chew on that a while! He was simply indifferent to what the world
might say of his actions; it had not been he, had it, who had brought a
brown-eyed child into the world! Well then, folk would certainly be on
his side! And quite apart from all that, the masters of Segelfoss Manor
had a way of doing about as they liked!
But his young wife followed his example and thereafter it was the
Gypsy Otto who took her to church. There they both sat in the
traditional manorial pew to defy all public opinion, even though Otto
Alexander was only a Gypsy and a common warehouse hand. Hm,
Theodore paa Bua must have thought to himself at that--the situation is
growing intolerable! And the Gypsy was through then and there.
Ay, for autumn was at hand and the salmon fishing was over for that
year.
But Theodore was not a bad sort; he was willing to balance accounts.
He had a plain talk with his wife and mentioned a new arrangement.
The children were growing up rapidly and the little girls, in particular,
were old enough now to have a regular tutor, a really learned man. Oh
that rascal, Theodore paa Bua! That cunning scamp! He was no Cupid's

votary; he was really bored to death with trying to feign an affair with
the governess and he was unable to go on simulating a deeply wounded
vanity-- enough of that sort of thing! No, he was really not so bad.
And it was a splendid solution to the family problem when the
governess went her way and a male tutor arrived in the house. Now the
children could get some real knowledge into those heads of theirs.
Gordon Tidemand, particularly, was in need of manly instruction,
brilliant and precocious as he had already proven himself to be, his
mind a searching flame. And in time he went to Trondhjem, first to a
school where he took first honours, later serving his business
apprenticeship as a clerk behind a counter. After that, he spent two
years in Germany where he studied "all that pertained to the
profession," such as mercantile trading, accountancy, banking and
foreign exchange--pompous and superfluous stuff for a mere coastal
trader from Segelfoss, but liberalizing and essential for a cultured man
of affairs. Theodore paa Bua was doing his level best to ape the ways of
the old Lieutenant by giving his son a complete and refined education
abroad, and, since he had made no end of money of late on a couple of
herring coups, he could well afford this unusual expense. And not only
that: he even assigned his son, that mere youth, the task of buying up
some fine old furniture for the halls and parlours of Segelfoss Manor
like that which had stood there before--gold-framed mirrors which
reached from floor to ceiling, chairs and sofas designed with gilded
sphinxes and lion's paws, paintings and vases, tables and inlaid cabinets;
and many an odd piece did Gordon Tidemand pick up and send home
in enormous packing cases. It was indeed a spectacle to see how the
interior of the palace was beginning to blossom again in all its former
splendour. A hodge-podge of ornamental pieces, some imitation, some
genuine, clocks which naturally did not run, chandeliers with countless
broken prisms, bronzes smeared over with cheap patina, certain pieces
of authentic furniture in fine old woods,