Then she said: "But I hope it will not be that way with me!"
"No, no, no! I was only thinking of myself."
"Is that to be your fate, then?"
"I do not know; but I felt so at that time—indeed, I do not understand it now, but I once had such a heavy heart."
"That was strange." She began to write on the window-pane again.
The next day, when Arne came in to dinner he went over to the window. Outside it was gray and foggy, within warm and pleasant; but on the window-pane a finger had traced "Arne, Arne, Arne!" and over again "Arne." It was the window where Eli had stood the preceding evening.
But Eli did not come down-stairs that day; she was feeling ill. She had not been well at all of late; she had said so herself, and it was plainly to be seen.