"No, I just took him over to see his son."
"Has Solem got a son here?" I asked.
Neither of them replied. Nikolai turned to go back to his work, and his wife went with him across the field.
Suddenly I understood: Sophie's child.
How well I remember that day at Tore Peak, when Schoolmistress Sophie Palm came in to tell us the latest news about Solem, about the bandage on his finger, the finger he never had time to get rid of--stout fellow! They made each other's acquaintance then, and probably met again later in the town. Solem was everywhere.
The ladies at the Tore Peak resort--well, Solem was no angel, but they did little to improve him. And so he met this woman who had learned nothing but to teach....
I ought to have understood before this. I don't understand anything any more.
But something has happened to me now.
At last I'm beginning to suspect that their chief reason for wanting to keep me here is simply that they need money; my board and rent are to pay for the mare. That's all it amounts to.