Evidently Nils had something in his
mind, and had come down here on purpose to fetch me.
Had he found me out? But what was there to find out?
Did I know myself what I had gone down to the shrubbery for? I remember
now that I lay face downwards, chewing a stalk of grass. There was light
in a certain upstairs window of the house. I was looking at that. And that
was all.
"Not being inquisitive now, but what's the matter?" I asked.
"Nothing," said Nils. "The girls said you were down here, so I just came
along. Why, what else?"
So the maids had found me out, I thought to myself, and was ill pleased at
the thought. Ragnhild it must be, a devil of a girl, sharp as a needle;
she must have said a lot more than Nils was willing to confess. And what
if Fruen herself had seen me from the window!
I resolved now to be cold and indifferent as ice henceforward all the days
of my life.
* * * * *
Ragnhild is properly in clover. The thick stair carpet muffles every step;
she can run upstairs whenever she pleases and slip down again in a moment
without a sound.
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