ug.
When he heard what she wanted, he exclaimed:--

"I have been so confoundedly bored with this tall woman and her tiresome
vocation, that you will find it impossible to get one word out of me.
Besides, I am expecting my 'skyds.'"

He was about to turn away; but Roennaug held fast to him, laughing, and
brought him back to the theme. Before she had succeeded, however, in
laying before him the necessary facts, he interrupted with,--

"The fact is she has no vocation whatever; that is the whole secret of
the matter. Her singing? Tande so often wrote to me about her singing.
Well, I have been listening to her singing this morning, and do you know
what I think about it? Technical correctness, good method, pure tone, in
abundance; but no fancy, no inspiration, no expression; how the deuce
could there be! Had she had fancy, she would have had energy, and with
her voice, her natural technical ability, she would have become a
singer, whether there was a Tande or not, whether she had married a
Skarlie or a Farlie."

Notwithstanding the harsh, blunt form in which this idea was framed,
there might be sufficient truth in it to make it worth while to place
Magnhild's history before Grong in its true light. Grong could not
resist the fascination of a soul's experiences. He became all ear,
forgetting both his ire and his "skyds."

He heard now about the Magnhild who would scarcely take pains to dress
herself, and who let Skarlie do and say what he pleased, but who the
moment Skarlie mentions Tande's name and hers together, in other words,
invades her inner sanctuary, flees forthwith from him to America. Was
there no energy in that?

He heard about the Magnhild who, checked in her highest aspirations,
became wholly indifferent. The relations with Tande were fully
explained. Grong, indeed, had been partially acquainted with them by
Tande himself. Roennaug also thought it right to inform Grong of the
purport of Tande's letter; she could recall it perfectly, for it had
made a deep impression on her.

What an impression did it not make on Grong!

How much it must have cost this man in his time to renounce what he had
originally believed to be his vocation. And now to have to give up his
hopes for his son? How could she and Magnhild have laughed at this--as
they had done that same morning.

"Consolation in the idea that our calling is greater and more manifold
than we ourselves are aware? Yes, for those who can blindly and withou