"When he commands it?"
"And keep nothing secret respecting us two."
"When he tortures me?"
"But we gain more, and protect ourselves better by having everything open. We shall be just so much observed by people, that they will talk of how much we care for each other, and they will the sooner wish us well. You must not leave. There is danger for those who are separated lest slander should come in between them; they believe nothing the first year, but they begin little by little to be influenced the second. We two must meet when we can, and laugh away all the ill report they will set between us. We shall be able to meet at a dance now and then, and swing merrily round while they sit by who calumniate us. We shall meet at church, and talk to each other in the face of those who wish us a hundred miles away. If any one writes a ditty about us, we will see if we cannot write one in reply. No one can harm us if we keep together and let people see it. All the unhappiness in love belongs either to those who are afraid, or to those who are weak, or to those who are ill, or to those calculating people who watch for certain opportunities, or to those cunning people who at last suffer for their own devices, or to those matter-of-fact people who don't care so much for each other, that state and position can disappear; they steal quietly away, and send letters, and tremble at a single word, and at last take that constant restlessness and uneasiness for love; they feel unhappy and dissolve away like sugar. Pooh, pooh! if they really cared for each other they would have no fear, they would be light hearted, they would not care who saw them. I have read about it in books. I have seen it myself also; that is a poor love that goes round about. True love must begin in secrecy because it begins in reserve and modesty, but it must live in openness because its existence is joy. It is as in the spring time, when the leaves begin to shoot, all that is withered and dry falls off from the tree as soon as the new life begins. He who falls in love leaves the useless toys he has held to before, the new life springs, and then can no one see it? Hey, Marit! they will be glad through seeing us glad. Two betrothed, who are true to each other, are a benefit to the public, for they read them a poem which the children learn by heart, to the shame of their calculating parents. I have read of many instances, and there are rumours of such even here in the district, and it is just the children of those who once caused all the misery, that now speak of it and are moved by it. Well, now let us join hands, and promise to be true to each other and we shall succeed."
He was about to embrace her but she turned her head away, and slipped down from the stone. As he remained sitting, she came back again, and with her arms resting on his knees she stood there, and talked to him as she looked up.
"Listen now, Ovind, when he says I must leave, what shall I say?"
"You must say no, straight out."
"Oh dear! will that do?"
"He cannot take and carry you out to the carriage."
"If he doesn't do just that, there are many other ways in which he can force me."