"It's not that, I am crying for."
"Why, then, are you crying?"
"Because I shall not live any longer with Mathilde."
This was the name of the Clergyman's only daughter; and Arne remembered that a peasant-girl had been brought up with her.
"Still, that couldn't go on for ever."
"Well, but only one day more father, dear!" and the girl began sobbing.
"No, it's better we take you home now; perhaps, indeed, it's already too late."
"Too late! Why too late? did ever anybody hear such a thing?"
"You were born a peasant, and a peasant you shall be; we can't afford to keep a lady."
"But I might remain a peasant all the same if I stayed there."