"I said the girl should choose for herself if she was old enough, and at last he consented."
"But what about Margret Neilsen?"
"That was harder still. 'I promised her mother I should keep her as long as I lived,' she said."
"Ah, poor thing! She didn't know what was to happen."
"'I wouldn't part with her to anybody in the world hut Anna,' she said."
"I always said Margret Neilsen was as good as gold."
"'And I wouldn't part with her now,' she said, 'only Anna is in such trouble.'"
"Trouble?"
"Give the child to Maria and come into the house, mother."
The sunshine died off Anna's face; she saw what was coming.