“Was it that you meant?” said Arne. And then, as she was silent, he said:
“I wondered if you meant that you would rather be wedded to me than to the other—”
“That I would, truly,” said she in a low voice. “—I know you better—”
Arne threw his arms around her so that her feet were lifted from the ground. He kissed her face many times, and then set her down again:
“God help us, Kristin, what a child you are!”
She stood and hung her head, but left her hands upon his shoulders. He caught her wrists and held them tight:
“I see how ’tis with you, my sweeting; you little know how sore I am at heart to lose you. Kristin, you know we have grown up together like two apples on one branch; I loved you long before I began to understand that one day another would come and break you from me. As sure as God suffered death for us all—I know not how I can ever be happy in this world after to-day—”
Kristin wept bitterly and lifted her face, so that he might kiss her.
“Do not talk so, my Arne,” she begged, and patted him on the shoulder.
“Kristin,” said Arne in a low voice and took her into his arms again, “think you not that if you begged your father—Lavrans is so good a man, he would not force you against your will—if you begged them but to let you wait a few years—no one knows how fortune may turn for me—we are both of us so young.”