an followed with a hose;
and out of the open window, with his straw hat on his head, hung young
Veyergang, and talked.

There stood Mrs. Holman, with arms akimbo, beside one of the black
flower-beds, inspecting some plant that she had patted down with her
hand; and--Silla! on her knees, pulling up weeds into her apron from a
bed close to the house. It was with her Veyergang was joking from the
window, and she shook her head and laughed, and looked up for a
moment--she dared not answer because of Mrs. Holman.

It was as if a pair of pincers with many claws had suddenly taken hold
of Nikolai's heart, and he all at once remembered so vividly the day
when he had had Ludvig Veyergang under his fists.

He went back with a weight like lead upon his breast, and sat down on
the edge of a ditch in the field, whence he could, unseen, keep an eye
upon all who came down the road.

She had looked so much too pretty when she raised her head with that
suppressed merriment in her glance. This was what his thoughts would
return to, and he only saw before him what he suffered from.

An hour had passed. Almost stupidly he had watched one after another
come down the road; but all at once his face changed colour. Ludvig
Veyergang was sauntering past, dashing and easy, with his stick held
loosely in his hand. He had red cheeks like a girl, and fine black
whiskers beneath the straw hat, and he half closed his grey eyes to look
about him, while he hummed softly.

Nikolai gazed despondently after him, as he disappeared down the road.

Again this same old hopelessness before a superior force, this feeling
for which he could never find words and vent, unless it some day
happened that--he closed his eyes, and there was a compressed, violent
expression about his mouth and chin.

There came Silla by Mrs. Holman's side, with bent head, like a willow
that is bowed by its growth. Sometimes she stole a glance around, like
a school-girl who avoids her teacher's eye.

They separated at the Valsets' cottage; Silla went in after the
evening's milk.

She came out again with the can, and took the path over the meadow. She
went quickly, smiling to herself, and an almost frightened expression
came into her face when Nikolai rose out of the bush by the ditch.

"Do you start when you see me, Silla?"

"How fierce you look!" she answered jestingly.

"You did say you'd be my wife, didn't you, Silla?"

"What makes you say that now, Nikolai? It's such