"Gone--yes, of course. She's going to meet her husband."
I strolled up to the reservoir again. Grindhusen away meant one man less;
why, then, the rest of us must work so much the harder.
But I had already come to realize that Fru Falkenberg had only silenced me
with a false excuse when she declared she was going to meet her husband.
What matter? The horses were rested; they had done no work the days Nils
had been helping us with the trench. But I had been a fool. I could have
got up on the box myself without asking leave. Well, and what then? Why,
then at least any later follies would have had to pass by way of me, more
or less, and I might have stopped them. He, he! infatuated old fool! Fruen
knew what she was doing, no doubt; she wanted to pay off old scores, and
be away when her husband came home. She was all indecision, would and
would not, would and would not, all the time; but the idea was there. And
I, simple soul--I had not set out a-wandering on purpose to attend to the
particular interests of married folk in love or out of it.
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