"Yes," was the short and not very encouraging answer.
"And when is the wedding to be?"
"There is time enough for that."
Ulric looked down at the girl, who with quick-coming breath and trembling fingers was busying herself with her work, without even raising her eyes to him. A sort of reproachful feeling rose up in his mind towards her.
"You have done right, Martha," he said, in a low voice. "Karl is a good fellow, and very fond of you, fonder, perhaps, than .... than others might have been. Yet you sent him away again without an answer after our last talk. When did you promise to marry him?"
"Yesterday three weeks."
"Yesterday three weeks! Why, that was the day after the accident. So it was then you promised?"
"Yes, it was then. I could not do it before. It was only on that day I felt as if I ever could be his wife."
"Martha!"
The man's voice swelled half in anger, half in pain. He would have laid his hand on her arm, but she started back involuntarily. He let his hand fall and moved away.