“Well, I don’t,” declared Gunnar.
She smiled, but it was a queer smile, and she said nothing. Perhaps she herself did not know what she meant.
Gunnar spun around on his heel and went back to his work.[Pg 511]
“Let her wait!” he thought, and laughed aloud. “Here, you, Kelly! Get on the job there!”
He slept well that night, and the next morning, when he came down into the kitchen, he was swaggering a little. Mrs. Anders was there, and he had no chance to talk to Ingeborg; but he looked straight into the girl’s face, and she smiled at him.
“I’ll marry her!” he thought. “Yes, that’s what I’ll do!”
“What you laughing about?” asked Mrs. Anders.
“Oh, nothing!” said Gunnar.
As a matter of fact, he was laughing at the idea of his getting married. Gunnar Jespersen a married man! It was funny, but it made him very happy.
“Such a fine young man!” thought Mrs. Anders. “The best room in the house he takes. He must be rich; and so handsome and strong, and his people from the old country! If there should be a man like that for the little Ingeborg—”