The Queen-bee imagined that there must be a hole in his pocket, through which the pincushion had fallen on the stairs.

Petrea, in whose suggestion the joke originated, was quite dismayed about the fate of the cushion.
Never once did it enter into the innocent heads of the children that the Candidate had done all this in order to turn their intended surprise on him into a surprise on themselves.
"How came you to be acquainted with Mrs.Gunilla W. ?" asked Elise from Jacobi when the lady was gone.
"When I was studying in----," replied he, "I routed a small room on the ground-floor of the same house where she lived.

As I at that time was in very narrow circumstances, I had my dinner from an eating-house near, where all was supplied at the lowest price; but it often was so intolerably bad, that I was obliged to send it back untasted, and endeavour, by a walk in the fresh air instead, to appease my hunger.

I had lived thus for some time, and was, as may be imagined, become meagre enough, when Mrs.W., with whom I was not personally acquainted, proposed to me, through her housekeeper, that she should provide me with a dinner at the same low charge as the eating-house.

I was astonished, but extremely delighted, and thankfully accepted the proposal.