She fastened the black kerchief round her head, put on Lotta Hedman's cloak, and, taking up her bag, prepared to start.
Before leaving the room, however, she opened her bag to see if the money and other things were safe. Then she gave a cry of dismay. The six hundred kronor were gone.
She felt in the pocket of her cloak, and in her dress. The money was not there.
She understood at once that they had been stolen. The knife-grinder had taken them out of the bag while it was in the sledge.
She staggered to a seat. This was a terrible blow. She could not go to America now. All roads were barred. Oh, Heaven!
She bowed her head on the table and tried to think. Yes, she had told the man yesterday that she had money. And he perhaps had been thinking all along how he could get hold of what she had. Tired and exhausted as he was, he had yet been able to carry out his plan.
And in so doing he had rendered life impossible for her.
"It is a hard world to go out in for one that is poor and alone," she thought. "A hard world."
She felt not exactly penitent; but she realized now the utter impossibility of accomplishing her purpose.
"I might go out as a beggar on the high road," she thought. "But what would be the good of that? I did not leave my home to be an adventuress."