"Yet even your dull soul was on fire once! But I--when I was young, I had beauty such as you never had, and I loved--Olaf Gueldmar." Ulrika uttered an exclamation of astonishment.

"You! and yet you hate him now ?" Lovisa raised her hand with an imperious gesture.
"I have grown hate like a flower in my breast," she said, with a sort of stern impressiveness.

"I have fostered it year after year, and now,--it has grown too strong for me! When Olaf Gueldmar was young he told me I was fair; once he kissed my cheek at parting! For those words,--for that kiss,--I loved him then--for the same things I hate him now! When I know he had married, I cursed him; on the day of my own marriage with a man I despised, I cursed him! I have followed him and all his surroundings with more curses than there are hours in the day! I have had some little revenge--yes!"-- and she laughed grimly--"but I want more! For Britta has been caught by his daughter's evil spell.

Britta is mine, and I must have her back.

Understand me well!--do what you have to do without delay! Surely it is an easy thing to ruin a woman!" Ulrika stood as though absorbed in meditation, and said nothing for some moments.