"It is Vestman and his sister-in-law," said Borg. "Fie! If I were her husband I would sink her!"
"Not him?" came from the girl more hastily than she intended.
"He is not married!" answered Borg shortly; "that is the difference!"
There was a silence, a disagreeable silence, such as makes one seek for a topic for conversation; and meantime whispered the thoughts, now untied from the enchantment: and he already longed for the enchantment again, for the intoxication, which blinded him, which turned gray to rose color, which built pedestals; which placed gilded edges on cracked china.
At this they turned from the rocky wall to go home. The wind which had been quite asleep, now began to waft against them and in his anxiety the awakened lover felt how freshly it blew. It was the north wind which he had waited for, and which he now greeted as a rescuer. For in a second when the girl's contradiction in a serious matter had just as though broken something in him, so that he felt that her being could only be soldered to his, not melted together with it, unless he gave up resisting and delivered himself to her wholly and fully, he now grasped the opportunity to raise himself again without treading upon her.
"Why do the people hate me?" asked he suddenly.
"Because you are superior to them," slipped from the girl without her observing the confession she made.
"I do not believe it," answered he, "for their intellect is not sufficient to value my superiority."
"Their hate can pervert their vision!"
"Superbly answered! But if they should see the miracle, would their eyes open?"