Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-01-17
CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VII.
Two years passed rapidly and Gunnar
became proficient in English. He took
q lesson of one hour every evening from
his landlady's daughter, the charming
Mathilda, who, when the student with
the beer base had taken French leave
(neglecting to settle his board billy, pitied
the solitary young man from the back
woods, and taught him a variety of
things besides English grammar. She
was curious mixture, this fascinating
Mathilda, and Gunnar, though not lack.
ing in common sense, found himself I'M
able to judge her. Two attributes, how
ever, he learned to distinguish in her.
He took her to be adorably simple and
kind hearted and full of good impulses.
But he could not deny that she was an
outrageous firt. He imagined, too, that
she put up with him sometimes because
she pitied his loneliness, and at other
times for want of anybody more desire
able. When you can't get tobacco to
smoke, they say in Norway, moss is a
fair substitute. Anything of the mas
culine gender was fair game for Mathil-
da, and her time hung heavily on her
hands when no masculine creatures were
about. Her mother affirmed that a fir
tatious disposition was SO deeply in
grained in her nature that it was use
less to blame her for it. She had, the
same authority asserted, winked at the
doctor when she was born.
One would have supposed that Gun
mar, armed with this knowledge, would
have been proof against her blandish-
ments. But no knowledge is a protection
against that kind of assaults. There was
to him delicious thrill of danger in the
situation which to her was entirely alb
sent. She had seen more of the world
than he. and sometimes, in order to tease
him, gave him grandmotherly advice.
She wormed his innocent secrets out Of
him, and obtained finally confession Of
all his misdeeds. He felt so desperately
wicked in having won the love of Inge-
rid, and then spurned it, that it was a
great relief to him to be able to call
himself hard names in the presence of a
sympathetic listener. He did not fail to
perceive that Mathilda, while condemn
ing his faithlessness, looked upon him
with hvelier interest after this conf
dence, and he could not help feeling
darkly heroic in the midst of all his
wickedness.
What a lovely character, he argued,
this gentle maiden must have to forgive
all his past, and treat him with such
kindness and sweet consideration.
Why, knowing how disinterested she
was, should he hold back from her his
other and far more important secret? He
had repeatedly limited at it in her pres
ence, and though her curiosity had been
vaguely piqued she had failed to rise to
the occasion. She treated his mys-
FERROUS illusions as if she only half be-
ieved them. and replied to his dark OBJ
servations with an absent minded Vi
vacity which tried him sorely. He felt
at last that his self respect compelled
him to reveal the plot of which he was
both victim and author, He was irri-
tated beyond all endurance, and antici-
pated with a morbid satisfaction the
he would make when he should
explode his bomb. But here he was
again destined to disappointment. The
shrewd Mathilda betrayed no great as
constituent. He saw by the glance she
gave him from under her long lashes that
she thought he was romancing, but was
boo considerate to tell him so. He had
then no choice but to produce his proof.
and when Mathilda finally had no choice
but to believe him he could no longer
charge her with indifference.
She betrayed an alacrity and an in
dignation on his behalf which were ex-
tremely fiattering. He felt with gratifed
vanity how immensely he had risen in
her esteem. Unsophisticated though he
was he observed that she dressed with
more care for their lessons and exerted
all her arts to please in way which
formerly would never have occurred to
her. 1t was an intoxication of bliss to
sit at her side ON her sofa, while her hair
grazed his cheek and her hand some
times by some vagrant impulse stole
into his, and her dark blue eyes sud-
denly flashed upon him glance full of
tender meaning. She could put on
look of such appealing innocence that
Gunnar had to exert all his self restraint
to keep himself within bounds A wild
desire seized him more than once to
clasp her in his arms and cover her face
with kisses, but ut such moments his
fancy would conjure up the sweet face
of Ingerid with fearful eyes and lips
auivering in infantine distress, and the