It was incomparable audacity on Fruen's part, of course, to say such a
thing to our face, but we could not protest; we saw she was only using us
to serve her need.
When we got outside, Nils said angrily:
"I'm not sure but I'd better go back and say a word or two myself about
that."
But I dissuaded him, saying it was not worth troubling about.
A few days passed. Again the Captain found an opportunity of paying
barefaced compliments to Ragnhild: "... with a figure like yours," he
said.
And the tone of everything about the house now--badly changed from of old.
Gone down, grown poorer year by year, no doubt, drunken guests doing their
share to help, and idleness and indifference and childlessness for the
rest.
In the evening, Ragnhild came to me and told me she was given notice;
Fruen had made some reference to me, and that was all.
Once more a piece of underhand work. Fruen knew well I should not be long
on the place; why not make me the scapegoat? She was determined to upset
her husband's calculations, that was the matter.
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