Books, Maps, Pictures, A Number Of Astronomical
Instruments, Geological Specimens, And A Magnificent
Assortment Of Fishing-Rods, Betrayed The Habits
Of the
practical, well-educated, business-loving English gentlemen
who inhabited it; and as he showed me the various articles
Of interest in his study, most heartily did I congratulate
myself on the lucky chance which had brought me into
contact with so desirable an acquaintance.
All this time we had seen nothing of the lady of the
house; and I was just beginning to speculate as to whether
that crowning ornament could be wanting to this pleasant
home, when the door at the further end of the room suddenly
opened, and there glided out into the sunshine - "The
White Lady of Avenel." A fairer apparition I have seldom
seen, - stately, pale, and fragile as a lily - blond hair,
that rippled round a forehead of ivory - a cheek of waxen
purity on which the fitful colour went and came - not
with the flush of southern blood, or flower-bloom of
English beauty, - but rather with a cool radiance, as of
"northern streamers" on the snows of her native hills, -
eyes of a dusky blue, and lips of that rare tint which
lines the conch-shell. Such was the Chatelaine of
Kaafiord, - as perfect a type of Norse beauty as ever my
Saga lore had conjured up! Frithiof's Ingeborg herself
seemed to stand before me. A few minutes afterwards, two
little fair-haired maidens, like twin snowdrops, stole
into the room; and the sweet home picture was complete.
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