The door closed again, no one entered, and for a few minutes she was left in peace.
"It will all be found out very soon now," thought Lotta. "It must be."
And the shame that would come upon Sigrun and herself weighed her down.
A little later, the housemaid entered, with early breakfast for her mistress.
She saw the lamp still alight, the wick smoking and nearly spent, the room full of smoke and almost in darkness. She called out, but no one answered. Then she realized that something must be wrong. She set down the tray, struck a match, and discovered Lotta sitting in a heap beside the bed; she saw, too, that the figure lying on it had a sheet spread over, as over a corpse. She came closer, lifted the sheet a little, and saw a pair of swollen hands.
At this Lotta came to life.
"For Heaven's sake, be careful. It is smallpox."
The girl dropped the sheet and started back.
And she it was who spread the news, telling the Pastor and the rest of the household.
Lotta herself, protected as she was by the dread of infection, was scarcely questioned at all.