and could not be mended.

"Perhaps you prefer to be alone in the boat?" she asked hastily, fixing
her eyes upon him. But when she saw the long helpless creature standing
before her in such a miserable state of confusion, strong and handsome
as he was, she sprang up, threw her arms round his neck, and said, half
laughing, half crying, "Oh, Per! Per!"

Per had not the faintest idea how he ought to behave when a lady had her
arms round his neck, and so stood perfectly still. He looked down upon
her long dark hair and slender figure, and, trembling at his own
audacity, he put his heavy arm limply round her.

They were now out on the dunes, and she sat down behind one of the
largest tussocks, on the warm sand. He ventured to place himself by her
side, and looked vacantly around him. Every now and then he cast his eye
upon her, but still doubtfully. It was clear that he did not grasp the
situation, and at length he appeared to her so absurd that she sprang
up, and cried, "Come, Per, let's have a run!"

Away they went, now running, now at a foot's pace. His heavy sea-boots
made a broad impression upon the sand, and the mark of her shoe looked
so tiny by the side of it that they could not help turning round and
laughing. They jested and laughed as if they knew not that they were no
longer children, and she made Per promise to give up chewing tobacco.

Away along the curving shore, with the salt breath of ocean fresh upon
them, went these young hearts, rejoicing in their existence, while the
sea danced in sparkling wavelets at their feet.