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They came back the same evening; they had turned back when half-way out. Had Fruen forgotten something? She ordered fresh horses, and another hamper of food; she was going off again at once. Nils was uneasy, and said so; it was almost night, they would be driving in the dark; but Fruen repeated her order.
He could give me no news; I did not ply him with questions, nor even lead him on to tell me things of his own accord; and, besides, he was far from intelligent. But he lived under the same roof with Fruen ah yes, that he did. And one day it came about that this acquaintance of mine with the hotel porter brought me a piece of valuable information about Fru Falkenberg, and that from her own lips.
Fruen made no answer. We went on loading up, and Fruen moved farther and farther away as we came up. At last the frames were cleared, and she stood there guiltily, very pale after her trouble. "Shall I see you back to the house?" asked the Captain. "No, thank you, I'd rather not," she answered, walking away. The Captain stayed out and worked with us till evening.
But don't you think now we might set to work and shift away all the wreckage that's been burying us for years, and get clear and breathe again? You might have a daughter yet! At that Fruen got up and made as if to say something, but couldn't. 'Yes, was all she said, and 'Yes, she said again. 'You're tired and nervous, I know, he said. 'But think a little over what I've said.
Said Froken Elisabeth: "Oh, I think it's just lovely to have meals out of doors. Don't you?" And here she said De, instead of Du, as she had said before. "It's not so new to him, you know," said Fruen; "he has his dinner out in the woods every day."
Ragnhild had heard the Captain, highly offended, talking to her through the wall. But that evening the Captain had demanded to speak with her in her room before she went to bed. Fruen agreed, and there was a further scene. Each was willing and anxious, no doubt, to set matters right, but it was hopeless now; it was too late. We sat in the kitchen, Nils and I, listening to Ragnhild's story.
Fruen came down one day when I was busy in the cellar. I called out to her to mind the hole in the floor; but she took it very calmly. "There's no hole there now, is there?" she asked, pointing one way. "Or there?" But at last she missed her footing after all, and slipped down into the hole where I was. And there we stood.
Then the Captain came out, calling after her: "Lovise, what is it, Lovise? Where are you going?" But Fruen only called back: "Leave me alone!" We looked at one another. Ragnhild rose from the table; she must go after her mistress, she said. "That's right," said Nils, calm as ever. "But go indoors first and see if she's moved those photographs."
There comes a forcedness, a play of jerky effort and grimaces, the fight against those younger than ourselves, and envy. "Froken...." I ask this of her now with all my heart. "Froken, couldn't you ring up Fru Falkenberg and get her to come round here now?" She thinks for a moment. "Yes, we will," she says generously. We go out to the telephone, ring up the Victoria: Fruen is there.
And you'd better go, too." "But they'll ring in a minute and be wanting something if I do." "Let them ring!" And then it was Ragnhild confessed that the Captain himself had asked her to stay up that night in case Fruen should want her. This altered the whole aspect of affairs in a moment. Evidently the Captain had feared something might happen, and set Ragnhild on guard in case.
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