way home--some of those at four for a
halfpenny."

"Can't you eat it as you go along, Silla?" he urged, when he came out
again; "you must make haste! Just think if she heard at home that you
had been with me."

"Pooh, there's no hurry," and she leaned against the wall, and regaled
herself--"for you see," she mumbled, "father won't be out of Mrs.
Selvig's yet a-while, and I'll say first of all that _that_ has kept me:
I can reckon at least half an hour for that. And then to mother I have
the excuse that it's Saturday evening, and there were so many people in
the shop that I could hardly get to the counter. And when I won't have
any supper, you know, I'll only say I've got such a headache with
standing and waiting in the shop: it was so stifling in there. I think
mother's nose would be very fine, if she could guess that I had met you.
Well, what are you looking so solemn about?"

"She at home"--he never named her mother in any other fashion--"forces
you into lies every single day; no one has a right to speak the truth
but her!"

"Oh!" she tossed her head impatiently; she had heard this so often.

"She eats up all the honesty in the room by herself, you know, for it's
quite impossible to act honestly by her, for very terror. She keeps
discipline, and much or little, it's all the same. Any one who wants to
speak the truth without using his fists to back it up will get thrashed
as I did! It doesn't matter for me; but when I think of you going home
and making up all those lies again, and that you are so frightened, and
haven't the strength to stand against them, Silla!"

She tried to laugh and make light of it; but her face fell sadly. She
could not bear this unpleasant subject, for she was obliged to tell
lies, however angry he might be.

And then she suddenly began to hurry.

"No, no, we must go home, Nikolai. I daren't stand here any longer."

Nikolai was starting off, but stopped suddenly at sight of Silla's
dismayed countenance. She had turned her pocket inside out, and stood
holding it while she gazed and searched on the ground round her. Then,
in feverish haste, she unfastened her bodice, and searched there.

"The money! Oh, the money, Nikolai!" she cried anxiously, and went on
shaking her skirt and looking about her, almost beside herself. "The
silver was wrapped up in the two dollar notes, just as father gave them
to me, and I put them into my pocket at once."

"What _shall_ I do, Nikolai?" She began to