Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/259

259

THE FAREWELL.

might soon be happily united, and promising to make
it a yearly stipend. Also the ring of betrothal which
she had once given to Godber, and had withdrawn from
his finger during his illness, Idalia had requested her
father to restore to her. Mander gave it to the pastor,
that he might choose the proper moment in which to re-
turn it.
  The travelers found the whole congregation assembled
on the shore ; and after one more pressure of the hand,
and one more hearty farewell, with tears in their eyes,
the father and son went on board. Idalia turned more
than once her swimming eyes back toward the little
island which was soon to disappear in the mist. She
would have gladly bid the vessel stay, not for the sake
of landing again, but to keep the hallig in her sight.
All her thoughts and emotions were in confusion ; and
she could no more direct them to the future, than she
could center them on the past. It would have been a
comfort to her, if the ship that was bearing her steadily
onward, had been overtaken by the ebb, and detained
between the two shores, just as she was herself midway
between the past and future. Her first steps on the
mainland were tremulous and staggering, like the un-
certain tread of one who first sets foot on shore, after
having been accustomed to the motion of a ship during
a long storm.
  The islanders remained on shore so long as the fog
permitted them to catch a glimpse of the vessel ; and
mutual signals of farewell were exchanged, long after
it was possible to know whether they could be seen by
each other.
  During the whole day the pastor was in a mood which