pretty tyranny had replaced it. But was it the love that he sought?

Jan's soul in old Nick's body was young and ardent. It desired
Christina not as a daughter, but as a wife. Could it win her in spite

of old Nick's body? The soul of Jan was an impatient soul. Better to
know than to doubt.

"Do not light the candles; let us talk a little by the light of the
fire only," said Nicholas. And Christina, smiling, drew her chair

towards the blaze. But Nicholas sat in the shadow.
"You grow more beautiful every day, Christina," said Nicholas--

"sweeter and more womanly. He will be a happy man who calls you
wife."

The smile passed from Christina's face. "I shall never marry," she
answered. "Never is a long word, little one."

"A true woman does not marry the man she does not love."
"But may she not marry the man she does?" smiled Nicholas.

"Sometimes she may not," Christina explained.
"And when is that?"

Christina's face was turned away. "When he has ceased to love
her."

The soul in old Nick's body leapt with joy. "He is not worthy of you,
Christina. His new fortune has changed him. Is it not so? He thinks

only of money. It is as though the soul of a miser had entered into
him. He would marry even Dame Toelast for the sake of her gold-bags

and her broad lands and her many mills, if only she would have him.
Cannot you forget him?"

"I shall never forget him. I shall never love another man. I try to
hide it; and often I am content to find there is so much in the world

that I can do. But my heart is breaking." She rose and, kneeling
beside him, clasped her hands around him. "I am glad you have let me

tell you," she said. "But for you I could not have borne it. You are
so good to me."

For answer he stroked with his withered hand the golden hair that fell
disordered about his withered knees. She raised her eyes to him; they

were filled with tears, but smiling.
"I cannot understand," she said. "I think sometimes that you and he

must have changed souls. He is hard and mean and cruel, as you used
to be." She laughed, and the arms around him tightened for a moment.

"And now you are kind and tender and great, as once he was. It is as
if the good God had taken away my lover from me to give to me a

father."
"Listen to me, Christina," he said. "It is the soul that is the man,

not the body. Could you not love me for my new soul?"
"But I do love you," answered Christina, smiling through her tears.

"Could you as a husband?" The firelight fell upon her face.
Nicholas, holding it between his withered hands, looked into it long

and hard; and reading what he read there, laid it back against his
breast and soothed it with his withered hand.

"I was jesting, little one," he said. "Girls for boys, and old women
for old men. And so, in spite of all, you still love Jan?"

"I love him," answered Christina. "I cannot help it."
"And if he would, you would marry him, let his soul be what it may?"

"I love him," answered Christina. "I cannot help it."
Old Nicholas sat alone before the dying fire. Is it the soul or the

body that is the real man? The answer was not so simple as he had
thought it.

"Christina loved Jan"--so Nicholas mumbled to the dying fire--"when he
had the soul of Jan. She loves him still, though he has the soul of

Nicholas Snyders. When I asked her if she could love me, it was
terror I read in her eyes, though Jan's soul is now in me; she divined

it. It must be the body that is the real Jan, the real Nicholas. If
the soul of Christina entered into the body of Dame Toelast, should I

turn from Christina, from her golden hair, her fathomless eyes, her
asking lips, to desire the shrivelled carcass of Dame Toelast? No; I

should still shudder at the thought of her. Yet when I had the soul
of Nicholas Snyders, I did not loathe her, while Christina was naught

to me. It must be with the soul that we love, else Jan would still
love Christina and I should be Miser Nick. Yet here am I loving

Christina, using Nicholas Snyders' brain and gold to thwart Nicholas
Snyders' every scheme, doing everything that I know will make him mad

when he comes back into his own body; while Jan cares no longer for
Christina, would marry Dame Toelast for her broad lands, her many

mills. Clearly it is the soul that is the real man. Then ought I not
to be glad, thinking I am going back into my own body, knowing that I

shall wed Christina? But I am not glad; I am very miserable. I shall
not go with Jan's soul, I feel it; my own soul will come back to me.

I shall be again the hard, cruel, mean old man I was before, only now
I shall be poor and helpless. The folks will laugh at me, and I shall

curse them, powerless to do them evil. Even Dame Toelast will not
want me when she learns all. And yet I must do this thing. So long

as Jan's soul is in me, I love Christina better than myself. I must
do this for her sake. I love her--I cannot help it."

Old Nicholas rose, took from the place, where a month before he had
hidden it, the silver flask of cunning workmanship.

"Just two more glassfuls left," mused Nicholas, as he gently shook the
flask against his ear. He laid it on the desk before him, then opened

once again the old green ledger, for there still remained work to be
done.

He woke Christina early. "Take these letters, Christina," he
commanded. "When you have delivered them all, but not before, go to

Jan; tell him I am waiting here to see him on a matter of business."
He kissed her and seemed loth to let her go.

"I shall only be a little while," smiled Christina.
"All partings take but a little while," he answered.

Old Nicholas had foreseen the trouble he would have. Jan was content,
had no desire to be again a sentimental young fool, eager to saddle

himself with a penniless wife. Jan had other dreams.
"Drink, man, drink!" cried Nicholas impatiently, "before I am tempted

to change my mind. Christina, provided you marry her, is the richest
bride in Zandam. There is the deed; read it; and read quickly."

Then Jan consented, and the two men drank. And there passed a breath
between them as before; and Jan with his hands covered his eyes a

moment.
It was a pity, perhaps, that he did so, for in that moment Nicholas

snatched at the deed that lay beside Jan on the desk. The next
instant it was blazing in the fire.

"Not so poor as you thought!" came the croaking voice of Nicholas.
"Not so poor as you thought! I can build again, I can build again!"

And the creature, laughing hideously, danced with its withered arms
spread out before the blaze, lest Jan should seek to rescue

Christina's burning dowry before it was destroyed.
Jan did not tell Christina. In spite of all Jan could say, she would

go back. Nicholas Snyders drove her from the door with curses. She
could not understand. The only thing clear was that Jan had come back

to her.
"'Twas a strange madness that seized upon me," Jan explained. "Let

the good sea breezes bring us health."
So from the deck of Jan's ship they watched old Zandam till it

vanished into air.
Christina cried a little at the thought of never seeing it again; but

Jan comforted her and later new faces hid the old.
And old Nicholas married Dame Toelast, but, happily, lived to do evil

only for a few years longer.
Long after, Jan told Christina the whole story, but it sounded very

improbable, and Christina--though, of course, she did not say so--did
not quite believe it, but thought Jan was trying to explain away that

strange month of his life during which he had wooed Dame Toelast. Yet
it certainly was strange that Nicholas, for the same short month, had

been so different from his usual self.
"Perhaps," thought Christina, "if I had not told him I loved Jan, he

would not have gone back to his old ways. Poor old gentleman! No
doubt it was despair."

End

• worthy [´wə:ði] a.有价值的；值得的 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• scheme [ski:m] n.计划；阴谋，诡计 (初中英语单词)
• knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
• miserable [´mizərəbəl] a.悲惨的；可怜的 (初中英语单词)
• helpless [´helpləs] a.无助的，无依靠的 (初中英语单词)
• cunning [´kʌniŋ] a.&n.狡猾(诡诈)的 (初中英语单词)
• gently [´dʒentli] ad.温和地；静静地 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• tyranny [´tirəni] n.暴政；专制政治 (高中英语单词)
• impatient [im´peiʃənt] a.不耐烦的，急躁的 (高中英语单词)
• shudder [´ʃʌdə] n.&vi.震颤；发抖 (高中英语单词)
• madness [´mædnis] n.疯狂；狂热 (高中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
• ardent [´ɑ:dənt] a.热心的；热情洋溢的 (英语四级单词)
• carcass [´kɑ:kəs] n.(动物的)尸体 (英语四级单词)
• loathe [ləuð] vt.厌恶，嫌恶 (英语四级单词)
• thwart [θwɔ:t] vt.阻挠 a.横(断的) (英语四级单词)
• sentimental [,senti´mentl] a.感伤的；多愁善感的 (英语四级单词)
• impatiently [im´peiʃəntli] ad.不耐烦地，急躁地 (英语四级单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
• powerless [´pauələs] a.软弱的；无资源的 (英语六级单词)
• foreseen [fɔ:´si:n] foresee的过去分词 (英语六级单词)