There was no answer to be got, except a weak groan down into her lap.
The captain's face began to grow solemn.
But Ma whispered, with a blaze of lightning in her eyes, "You see plainly, she cannot think, Jäger.—Don't you think as I do, father," she said aloud, "that it is best we let Thinka take the letter, so that she can consider it till to-morrow? It is such a surprise."
"Of course, if Thinka prefers it," came after them, from the captain, who was greatly offended, as Ma went with her, shutting her up in her chamber.
She had her cry out under the down quilt during the whole afternoon.
In the twilight Ma went up and sat beside her.
"No place to turn to, you see, when one will not be a poor, unprovided-for member of a family. Sew, sew your eyes out of your head, till at last you lie in a corner of some one's house. Such an honorable proposal would seem to many people to be a great thing."
"Aas! Aas, mother!" articulated Thinka very weakly.
"God knows, child, that if I saw any other way out, I would show it to you, even if I should have to hold my fingers in the fire in order to do it."