United States or Hong Kong ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Fruen had given her orders about a letter that was to be fetched from Lars Falkenberg's, and when it arrived, she was to wait till the light went out in Fruen's room, and then bring it up. "Very good," said Ragnhild. "But not till I put out the light, you understand," said Fruen again. And Ragnhild had set herself to wait for the letter.
"For that particular purpose, I dare say," he retorted. This set me thinking. Fruen was perhaps crafty enough to keep this girl spying, simply to make it seem as if she cared at all what her husband did. Then people could imagine that Fruen, poor thing, went about secretly longing for him, and being constantly disappointed and wronged.
She was determined to upset her husband's calculations, that was the matter. Ragnhild, by the way, took it to heart a good deal, and sobbed and dabbed her eyes. But after a while she comforted herself with the thought that, as soon as I was gone, Fruen would take back her dismissal and let her stay. I, for my part, was inwardly sure that Fruen would do nothing of the kind.
Yes, she asked once again, 'Coming on the 11th, is he? And I said yes, he was." "And then, a couple of days after, you got orders to drive her to the station?" "Why, yes, it must have been about a couple of days. Well, then, I thought, if Fruen knows about the letter, then Captain surely knows too. D'you know what he said when I brought it in?" I made no answer to this, but thought and thought.
Or had he thought that Fruen would be pleased to have some one she knew in attendance? If the last, then he was greatly mistaken; Fruen started in evident displeasure at finding me here, where she had thought, perhaps, to be safely concealed. I heard the engineer say: "I've got a man here, he'll take your luggage down. Have you the ticket?" But I made no sign of greeting. I turned away.
"Very well," said the Captain. He smiled as he spoke. He was drunk, no doubt, and angry about something. But Fruen turned as she passed by me in the doorway, and said: "You ought not to drive down there today. There's gossip enough already." "You need not listen to it," he answered. "It can't go on like this, you know," she said again. "And you don't seem to think of the disgrace...."
But I was restless all the time; after a little I took down the lamp from the wall and told Ragnhild to follow me. We went upstairs again. "No; go in and ask Fruen to come out here to me," I said. "Why, whatever for?" "I've a message for her." And Ragnhild knocked at the door and went in. It was only at the last moment I hit on any message to give.
In the woods. Petter is one of the farm-hands; he showed us the way here. When we talked together, Falkenberg was not by any means so grateful to Fruen for giving us work. "Nothing to bow and scrape for in that," he said. "It's none so easy to get workmen these days."
Fruen knew what she was doing, no doubt; she wanted to pay off old scores, and be away when her husband came home. She was all indecision, would and would not, would and would not, all the time; but the idea was there. And I, simple soul I had not set out a-wandering on purpose to attend to the particular interests of married folk in love or out of it. 'Twas their affair!
And then she went on to explain to Fruen that I was a curious person who wandered about in graveyards by night and held meetings with the dead. And it was there I invented my machines and things. By way of saying something, I asked about young Erik. He had been thrown by a runaway horse and badly hurt.... "He's better now," said Frokenen shortly. Are you ready to go on again, Lovise?"
Word Of The Day