“I came here to find out whether Mamselle Lovisa made my bridal-crown of whortleberry green,” she said. “But maybe ’twouldn’t do to ask her about it on a day like this?”
The housekeeper was rather startled, but she was not one to be easily thrown off her guard.
“How can you say anything so idiotic, Kaisa!” she flouted. “Everyone in the house knows what a lot of bother Mamselle Lovisa had with your bridal-crown. We all ran about to every cottage around here, and begged the myrtle.”
Kaisa stared at her as if searching her very soul to get at the truth. “But the whole parish says so,” she declared.
The old housekeeper, whose sole thought was to pacify the woman and get her out of the house, lest she disturb Mamselle Lovisa on this of all days, said:
“But I tell you, Kaisa, that as sure as Mamselle Lovisa’s own bridal-crown will be of myrtle was yours of myrtle, and of nothing else.”
“I’ll bear those words in mind,” said Kaisa. “And when I see what Mamselle Lovisa’s bridal-crown is bound with, then I’ll know how it was with mine.”
“You can rest easy as to that,” the housekeeper assured her.
The two then went into the kitchen, and Kaisa, looking quite calm now, put out her hand in farewell.
“I may as well be going,” she said. “Anyhow, I don’t suppose I could see Mamselle Lovisa to-day to speak to.”