kissing her--a proceeding which so much
astonished that devout servant of Luther, that her dull eyes filled with
tears.

"Forgive me!" said the impetuous little maiden. "I was very rude and
very unkind! But if you love the Froeken, you will understand how I
feel--how I wish I could have helped to take care of her. And oh! the
_bonde_!"--here she gave way to a fresh burst of tears--"the dear, good,
kind, brave _bonde_! That he should be dead!--oh! it is too cruel--too
dreadful--I can hardly believe it!"

Ulrika patted her consolingly on the shoulder, but said nothing--and
Valdemar sighed. Britta sought for her handkerchief, and dried her
eyes--but, after a minute, began to cry again as recklessly as ever.

"And now"--she gasped--"if the Froeken--dies--I will die too. I will--you
see if I don't! I _w-w-won't_ live--without her!"

And such a big sob broke from her heaving bosom that it threatened to
burst her trimly laced little bodice.

"She will not die," said Ulrika decisively. "I have had my fears--but
the crisis is passed. Do not fret, Britta--there is no longer any
danger. Her husband's love will lift the trouble from her heart--and
strength will return more speedily than it left her."

And turning a little aside on the pretence of throwing more wood on the
fire, she muttered inaudibly, "O Lord, verily thou hast done well to
grant my just demand! Even for this will I remain Thy servant for ever!"
After this parenthesis, she resumed the conversation,--Valdemar Svensen
sitting silently apart,--and related all that had happened since
Thelma's arrival at the Altenfjord. She also gave an account of Lovisa
Elsland's death,--though Britta was not much affected by the loss of her
grandmother.

"Dreadful old thing!" she said with a shudder. "I'm glad I wasn't with
her! I remember how she cursed the Froeken,--perhaps her curse has
brought all the trouble--if so, it's a good thing she's dead, for now
everything will come right again. I used to fancy she had some crime to
confess,--did she say anything wicked when she was dying?"

Ulrika avoided a direct reply to this question. What was the good of
horrifying the girl by telling her that her deceased relative was to all
intents and purposes a murderess? She resolved to let the secret of old
Lovisa's life remain buried with her. Therefore she simply answered--

"Her mind wandered greatly,--it was difficult to hear her last words.
But it should satisfy you, Britta, to kn