"And now—he's dead."
"Now—now you know what Pastor had to tell you," said her husband.
"And she," cried the poor mother—"she that was not his mother at all, but had had him with her all those years, she let him kill himself, when he'd done no wrong?"
She turned on her husband fiercely.
"You lie!" she cried. "It is not true!"
"I'd have said those very words myself an hour ago. I wouldn't have believed that a woman could be so heartless. But since I've heard you, now, I can believe it."
"But—but he hadn't only them to look to. He'd his mother and father here."
"Most likely he thought we'd take it the same way. And he wasn't so far wrong, it seems."
Mor Elversson turned away, and sat down on the rock. The tears ran down her cheeks. "Sven's dead," she said, "dead. No mother but a woman with a heart of stone—and she let him die."
She sat awhile, weeping and moaning.