“You going to stay down here long?” he asked suddenly.
“Yes, for a bit; why not? Oh, well, perhaps I'd better go up too.”
Nils walked off a few paces, then came back again.
“Better not stay here any longer,” he said. “Come along up here with me.”
“Think so?” I said, and rose at once. Evidently Nils had something in his mind, and had come down here on purpose to fetch me.
Had he found me out? But what was there to find out?
Did I know myself what I had gone down to the shrubbery for? I remember now that I lay face downwards, chewing a stalk of grass. There was light in a certain upstairs window of the house. I was looking at that. And that was all.
“Not being inquisitive now, but what's the matter?” I asked.
“Nothing,” said Nils. “The girls said you were down here, so I just came along. Why, what else?”
So the maids had found me out, I thought to myself, and was ill pleased at the thought. Ragnhild it must be, a devil of a girl, sharp as a needle; she must have said a lot more than Nils was willing to confess. And what if Fruen herself had seen me from the window!