Ashamed? Huh! The least said about that, if you ask me," said Barbro.
"I'm here to sit in the house like a statue, I suppose? What have I
got to be ashamed of, anyway? If you like to go and get some one else
to look after the place, I'm ready to go. You hold your tongue, that's
all I've got to say, if it's not too much to ask. I'm going back now
to get your supper and make the coffee, and after that I can do as I
please."

They came home with the quarrel at its height.

No, they were not always the best of friends, Axel and Barbro; there
was trouble now and again. She had been with him now for a couple of
years, and they had had words before; mostly when Barbro talked of
finding another place. He wanted her to stay there for ever, to settle
down there and share the house and life with him; he knew how hard
it would be for him if he were left without help again. And she had
promised several times--ay, in her more affectionate moments she would
not think of going away at all. But the moment they quarrelled about
anything, she invariably threatened to go. If for nothing else, she
must go to have her teeth seen to in town. Go, go away ... Axel felt
he must find a means to keep her.

Keep her? A lot Barbro cared for his trying to keep her if she didn't
want to stay.

"Ho, so you want to go away again?" said he.

"Well, and if I do?"

"_Can_ you, d'you think?"

"Well, and why not? If you think I'm afraid because the winter's
coming on ... But I can get a place in Bergen any day I like."

Then said Axel steadily enough: "It'll be some time before you can do
that, anyway. As long as you're with child."

"With child? What are you talking about?"

Axel stared. Was the girl mad? True, he himself should have been more
patient. Now that he had the means of keeping her, he had grown too
confident, and that was a mistake; there was no need to be sharp with
her and make her wild; he need not have ordered her in so many words
to help him with the potatoes that spring--he might have planted
them by himself. There would be plenty of time for him to assert his
authority after they were married; until then he ought to have had
sense enough to give way.

But--it _was_ too bad, this business with Eleseus, this clerk, who
came swaggering about with his walking-stick and all his fine talk.
For a girl to carry on like that when she was promised to another
man--and in her condition! It was beyond understanding. Up to then,
Axel had