INGATH'S VOOER. 237 



His masculine superiority made him blind to the 

 fact that women of twenty-five or thereabouts look 

 upon men of twenty as " mere boys " when it comes 

 to a question of love-making, though in other respects 

 their manly attributes are acknowledged. Also Ole 

 made a mighty mistake in fixing his affections upon 

 the elder Miss Halcro. If he had been wise enough 

 to choose Osla rather than her more dignified and less 

 beautiful sister, it is possible that his suit might have 

 prospered. But love has strange vagaries, and Ole's 

 love lighted on the proud Ingath. 



Only a woman bred in the belief that " blue blood " 

 is next to godliness, can comprehend how the lady 

 received Ole Harrison's frank proposal, couched in the 

 warm words which sailors know how to use to their 

 own advantage as a rule. Only a woman who has 

 never known the pains and penalties of love could 

 have answered it as cruelly as she did. 



Unfortunately, the young man was impetuous and 

 abrupt, as well as excessively demonstrative, and Miss 

 Ingath was startled, as well as affronted, by his wooing. 

 The sailor's winsome vocabulary was at a discount 

 in this case, and Ole was dismissed with indignant 

 scorn. 



In disappointment and wrath he turned his back 

 upon his native laud, vowing never to set foot upon it 

 again. He went to Australia — the Shetlanders' 

 Elysium — and was soon lost to home and friends ; and 

 Miss Ingath strove to forget that a fisher lad had dared 

 to cast love-lit eyes upon her aristocratic face. 



