ccident as it were, when she comes to a slide--daren't even look out of
the corner of her eye at a hand-sledge, because she's so well-behaved!
It was a respectable one like that you ought to have had. And then, when
you were standing hammering all day in the smithy, and she was deep in
her work standing on all fours with her head behind the wash-tub at
home, I suppose that would be as you would like to have it. But I can
tell you, Nikolai, that if there isn't to be any fun in this world, then
good-bye and be rid of it. I've had to sit shut up long enough at home."

He shook his head. "If only there weren't all those wolves howling away
there on the road. But you see, they want to amuse themselves too;
and--and the insignificant ones have to take care of what they have, it
seems to me--and if you're of the same mind, Silla, we'll go in to your
mother at once--this very moment." He took her by the hand to carry out
his intention.

"You must be mad, Nikolai," she exclaimed in terror; the resolution was
as terrible as it was unexpected. "No, no, let it be," she begged in an
eager whisper. "Think of mother! Have you quite forgotten what mother is
like? It will be time enough when we've got something to marry on."

"Time enough? No, it's not time enough for me, Silla. I must try and get
it said now."

"And what will happen to me at home afterwards? And you're not dressed
for it either, this evening."

"Oh, don't be afraid, Mr. Nikolai. I may as well see with my own eyes
how highly my daughter condescends to respect her mother who is left a
poor defenceless widow."

It was Mrs. Holman's own voice; she was standing in the gateway, looking
preternaturally large.

"I thought I had gone through the worst that could be, when Holman died,
and that I should be spared the pain of catching my own flesh and blood
out, without leave, in conversation in the street, in the middle of the
snow. Neither should I have thought that that person would ever presume
to come so near my house. Just you come in with me, Silla. Come in, do
you hear--at once!"

If any one could have gathered up the component parts of Mrs. Holman's
last screaming treble, he would have found a wealth of emotions: injured
motherly dignity, wrath, contempt, hatred, and something heavy, which
was meant to have a crushing effect, and really did almost make Silla
fall on her knees; she stood there without moving.

Nikolai had become a little hardened, however, since