Einar sat on the doorstep and heard this. He covered his face with his hands, and sat motionless.
“And I think of going on with my studies! I, who can never look any one in the face again!”
It was a beautiful day, with a clear sky above the brown moors and distant blue mountain ridges, and the snow-fields lay shining like silver in the sun.
In the evening Einar went down to the lake and pushed off the boat. He had thought for a time that the whole world was extinguished, and that he ought to jump into the water because he was too full of shame to live. But from force of habit he once more recalled the young girl to his mind; and just because he himself now stood so immeasurably low, it seemed to him that she stood high—high, and stretched out her hands to rescue him. He rowed slowly over the smooth water, in the middle of which the red sky was reflected. Twilight enveloped the silent shores in a light haze. The houses and the green fold of Norby Sæter were reflected in the water, and in the wake of the boat lay two rows of rings in the water, left by the dip of his oars.
Gradually he seemed to enter a peaceful land, and at last he shipped the oars, and let the boat drift. Gradually the world grew large and radiant. The moors looked at him and smiled. Everybody was happy in the main.
“Good heavens!” he thought. “Now I’m beginning to understand what love is.”
[CHAPTER VII]
ONE Saturday afternoon, Thora of Lidarende went out towards the Sound. It was in hay-making time, and the mowers were on the hills, making the hay into cocks for the evening. The fresh scent of hay was wafted through the air. Lake Mjösen lay still and clear, so that Fru Thora could see the stony bottom a long way out.
She turned up the avenue to the big parish school building, entered the yard, and hastened up the steps, for there were others she must manage to call on to-day.