"Dear Aunt Gitta, I am so happy with you! I don't want to marry ever, I think!"
"Not want to marry, child? You are crazy! It is a woman's duty to marry and rear children—the Bible says so. Perhaps you think you are in love with some other young man?"
No, Ragna was in love with no one.
"Well then, why did you refuse Ole Nansen?"
"Because I did not love him."
"Oh, stuff and nonsense! Not love him! Very probably you don't, but that is not essential, not one woman in a hundred 'loves' her husband until after she has married him. The important part is that everything else should be suitable. There's nothing you dislike in him, is there?"
"No, Auntie."
Fru Boyesen raised her eyes to Heaven.
"Well, all I can say is, you'll never get such a chance again; young Nansen is a man in a thousand."
"Are you so anxious to be rid of me, Auntie dear?"