She answered his unspoken questions. "The Baron Karl has asked me to marry him, Erik."
Erik stopped so abruptly that he came near falling headlong. The color faded from his rosy cheeks, and his eyes became two wide, blue stars.
"But you will refuse!" he cried.
He thought of his brother Nils. He thought of the great sorrow that this was going to cause Nils. Then he thought of the Baron, who was a gnome and a weakling and must never be master of Hanssonborg.
"You will surely refuse him!" he repeated.
Greta smiled with a sad little twist of her mouth.
"Perhaps I cannot, little Erik," she replied.
As they continued on their way, she explained to Erik why she might be obliged to accept the Baron's offer of marriage. She explained to him that her mother was threatened with the loss of Hanssonborg.
"And we could never bear to give up our home," she finished simply.
Erik could well understand this. "Home," like many other words, came to the English language from the Swedish. The Swedes build homes, and not just houses. Their dwellings are not mere objects of brick and wood, but are living parts of themselves.