“Trouble? Why? Why should trouble come to us?”
“Because you are happy, Peer.”
“What? Because I am—?”
“Because all things blossom and flourish about you. Be sure that there are unseen powers enough that grudge you your happiness.”
Peer smiled. “You think so?” he asked.
“I know it,” she answered with a sigh, gazing out into the distance. “You have made enemies of late amongst all those envious shadows that none can see. But they are all around us. I see them every day; I have learned to know them, in all these years. I have fought with them. And it is well for Merle that she has learned to sing in a house so full of shadows. God grant she may be able to sing them away from you too.”
When Peer left the house he felt as if little shudders of cold were passing down his back. “Pooh!” he exclaimed as he reached the street. “She is not right in her head.” And he hurried to his carriole and drove off home.
“Old Rode will be pleased, anyhow,” he thought. “He’ll be his own master in the workshop now—the dream of his life. Well, everyone for himself. And the bailiff will have things all his own way at Loreng for a year or two. Well, well! Come up, Brownie!”