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It would not have been human nature, certainly not
Ribe human nature. Before sundown it was all over town that Jacob
Riis was coming home, and coming for Elisabeth. Poor girl! It was
in the Christmas holidays, and she was visiting there. She had
been debating in her own mind whether to tell her mother, and how;
but they left her precious little time for debate. In a neighborhood
gathering that night one stern, uncompromising dowager transfixed
her with avenging eye.
"They say Jacob Riis is coming home," she observed. Elisabeth
knitted away furiously, her cheeks turning pink for all she made
believe she did not hear.
"They say he is coming back to propose to a certain young lady
again," continued the dowager, pitilessly, her voice rising. There
was the stillness of death in the room. Elisabeth dropped a stitch,
tried to pick it up, failed, and fled. Her mother from her seat
observed with never-failing dignity that it blew like to bring on
a flood. You could almost hear the big cathedral bell singing in
the tower. And the subject was changed.


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