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"What's the matter, then did it hurt?" said Kyllikki tenderly. She lifted the little one in her arms, and began talking to him with her eyes, and smiling, with delicious little movements of her head. The child began to laugh. Without a word, she laid him in Olof's arms. He thanked her with a look, and held the boy close to his breast. All else seemed to have vanished but this one thing.
Saw him tremble from head to foot, like a tree about to fall, waiting but for the last stroke of the axe. Well, he should have it.... "Well how does it feel?" He bowed mockingly, and went on with a sneer: "Wish you joy.... I've more reason, perhaps, than the others, seeing we're partners, so to speak, in the same...." "Liar devil coward!" Olof's rage broke loose.
And now I have come to ask again for your daughter's hand." "You a wastrel...!" The old man's voice trembled with anger. "I have been. But let us talk calmly, if you please." "Lumberman!" The word was flung out with a bitterness and contempt that cut like a knife. A dark flush rose to Olof's cheek; he was hard put to it already to control himself. "True," he said, slowly and with emphasis.
Then stepping back, she stood waiting, her face pale, her eyes fixed on Olof's face. It was the critical moment. To Kyllikki it seemed endless, as she stood there stiffly, dreading with every breath lest she should fall. Olof stood motionless, staring at her as at a vision. Once before he had seen her thus during the ordeal with her father.
Olof's heart was beating so that he almost feared the rest must hear it. His eyelids quivered, and his brow was furrowed deep as he sat staring into the fire. "'Tis that way sometimes with fine folk when they're in love," murmured one. "'Tis a woman's way altogether," put in another, with an attempt at gaiety, as if to dispel the feeling of gloom.
"Give him to me!" cried Olof, stretching out his arms impatiently. And Kyllikki smiled and handed him a tiny bundle wrapped in woollen rugs. Olof's hands trembled as he felt the weight of it in his arms. "Help her down, Antti; and come back a little later on I won't ask you in not just now," he said confusedly to the driver. The man laughed, and Kyllikki joined in.
'For a sign that I should belong to him for ever and I have. And at that the husband's eyes flashed, and without a word he drew his knife and struck it through the mark deep into her breast...." She would have said more, but her voice failed she could feel Olof's knees trembling against her breast. "You are good at telling stories," said he in a stifled voice. "But the end was too horrible."
Ay, he's sober enough. Young chap, and plenty of money wants the best sort." Olof's blood boiled. Was he to be bargained for like a beast in the cattle market? He was on the point of calling the man away, when the door opened a little. "Right you are, then," said the man, with a knowing gleam in his eyes. "Good evening won't you come in?"
It is you I have been seeking through all these years you, and something to still the longing you set to grow in my soul. Men fondled me with coarse hands, and had their will of me and I thought of your caresses; it was with you, with you I sinned!" The sweat stood out in beads on Olof's brow the torture was almost more than he could bear. "I know, I know!" he would have said.
Olof grasped her hand and pressed it to his lips without a word. Kyllikki went to fetch some coverings. As she did so, she caught sight of something lying on the table, and keeping her back turned to Olof, she picked up the thing and put it back in the drawer. Olof's eyes followed her with a grateful glance.
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