1 66 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [X. 



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 sud- 

 denly 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. 



The rest of the day has been a continued fete. In vain 

 after having transacted my business, I pleaded the turn- 

 ing of the tide, and our anxiety to get away to sea ; nothing 

 would serve our kind entertainer but that we should stay to 

 dinner ; and his was one of those strong energetic wills it is 

 difficult to resist. 



In the afternoon, the Hammerfest steamer called in from 

 the southward, and by her came two fair sisters of our 

 hostess from their father's home in one of the LorTodens 

 which overlook the famous Malstrom. The stories about 



the violence of the whirlpool Mr. T assures me are 



ridiculously exaggerated. On ordinary occasions the site 

 of the supposed vortex is perfectly unruffled, and it is only 

 when a strong weather tide is running that any unusual 

 movements in the water can be observed ; even then the 

 disturbance does not amount to much more than a rather 

 troublesome race. " Often and often, when she was a girl, 

 had his wife and her sisters sailed over its fabulous crater in 



