He followed her.
"Look here," he said, and asked her straight out, "What d'you mean by taking off those rings?"
Barbro, maybe, found it best to give way a little; she laughed, and answered: "Well, you are serious today—I can't help laughing! But if you want me to put on the rings and wear them out weekdays, why, I will!" And she got out the rings and put them on.
But seeing him look all foolish and content at that, she grew bolder.
"Is there anything else I've done, I'd like to know?"
"I'm not complaining," answered he. "And you've only to be as you were before, all the time before, when you first came. That's all I mean."
'Tis not so easy to be always together and always agree.
Axel went on: "When I bought that place after your father, 'twas thinking maybe you'd like better to be there, and so we could shift. What d'you think?"
Ho, there he gave himself away; he was afraid of losing her and being left without help, with none to look to the place and the animals again—she knew! "Ay, you've said that before," she answered coldly.
"Ay, so I have; but I've got no answer."
"Answer?" said she. "Oh, I'm sick of hearing it."