A regular committee of management was formed, and there was almost as much stir as if it was the 17th of May.[B] [Footnote B: Anniversary of the declaration of the Norwegian Independence in 1814.] Jacob Worse did not take any part in all this.

He truly regretted the Consul, who had always been almost like a father to him.
Mrs.Worse was more annoyed than sorry.

"It was too bad, it was really too bad," she grumbled, "of the Consul to go and die!" She was sure that he would have arranged the match, such a sensible man as he was; but now that there were nothing but a lot of women in the house--for the _attache_ was little better than an old woman himself--And so on, and so on, thought the old lady, and she wondered that Rachel, who had such a clever father, had not inherited a little more sense.
Sandsgaard was silent and desolate from top to bottom.

The body lay upstairs in the little room on the north side, and white curtains were hanging in front of all the windows of the second story.

Not a sound was heard, except the monotonous step of one, who went pacing unceasingly to and fro in the empty rooms.