After a silence came the whispered answer: "To Hans Haugen."
No name or event connected with Haugen had been mentioned in that room for more than twenty years. In her parents' opinion nothing but evil had come to Tingvold from there. Mildrid again knew their thoughts: she sat motionless, awaiting her sentence.
Her father spoke again mildly and slowly: "We don't know the man, neither I nor your mother—and we didn't know that you knew him."
"And I didn't know him either," said Mildrid.
The astonished parents looked at each other. "How did it happen then?" It was her mother who asked this.
"That is what I don't know myself," said Mildrid.
"But, my child, surely you're mistress of your own actions?"
Mildrid did not answer.
"We thought," added her father gently, "that we could be quite sure of you."