aid. She could not tell them of
all she had suffered in secret as a child, as a young girl.

But the magistrate must have understood something of what it meant; he
himself had a club-foot, and could not dance. "As to the sentence," he
said, "I hardly know. Really, it should be imprisonment for life, but
... I can't say, perhaps we might get it commuted, second or third
degree, fifteen to twelve years, or twelve to nine. There's a
commission sitting to reform the criminal code, make it more humane,
but the final decision won't be ready yet. Anyhow, we must hope for
the best," said he.

Inger came back in a state of dull resignation; they had not found it
necessary to keep her in confinement meantime. Two months passed; then
one evening, when Isak came back from fishing, the Lensmand and his
new assistant had been to Sellanraa.

Inger was cheerful, and welcomed her husband kindly, praising his
catch, though it was little he had brought home.

"What I was going to say--has any one been here?" he asked.

"Any one been? Why, who should there be?"

"There's fresh footmarks outside. Men with boots on."

"Why--there's been no one but the Lensmand and one other."

"What did they want?"

"You know that without asking."

"Did they come to fetch you?"

"Fetch me? No, 'twas only about the sentence. The Lord is kind, 'tis
not so bad as I feared."

"Ah," said Isak eagerly. "Not so long, maybe?"

"No. Only a few years."

"How many years?"

"Why, you might think it a lot, maybe. But I'm thankful to God all the
same."

Inger did not say how long it would be. Later that evening Isak asked
when they would be coming to fetch her away, but this she could not or
would not tell. She had grown thoughtful again, and talked of what was
to come; how they would manage she could not think--but she supposed
they would have to get Oline to come. And Isak had no better plan to
offer.

What had become of Oline, by the way? She had not been up this year as
she used to do. Was she going to stay away for ever, now that she had
upset everything for them? The working season passed, but Oline did
not come--did she expect them to go and fetch her? She would come
loitering up of herself, no doubt, the great lump of blubber, the
monster.

And at last one day she did. Extraordinary person--it was as nothing
whatever had occurred to make ill-feeling between them; she was even
knitting a pair of new stockings for Eleseus, she said.

"Just