the
winter midnight
Hardly is it probable that he will ever return to a land whose welcome to him fate made so horrible . His sister Maren and her husband still live blameless lives , with the little dog Ringe , in a new home they have made for themselves in Portsmouth , not far from the river-side ; the merciful lapse of days and years takes them gently but surely away from the thought of that season of anguish ; and though they can never forget it all , they have grown resigned and quiet again . And on the island other Norwegians have settled , voices of charming children sound sweetly in the solitude that echoed so awfully to the shrieks of Karen and Maren . But to the weirdness of the winter midnight something is added , a vision of two dim , reproachful shades who watch while an agonized ghost prowls eternally about the dilapidated houses at the beach 's edge , close by the black , whispering water , seeking for the woman who has escaped him -- escaped to bring upon him the death he deserves , whom he never , never , never can find , though his distracted spirit may search till man shall vanish from off the face of the earth , and time shall be no more . VENETIAN GLASS . BY BRANDER MATTHEWS . _ Hitherto unpublished .