"But that makes no difference, grandma. Besides, if I were to go to this gentleman and he were to treat me as if I were his own daughter, I should have to think of him as if he were my own father. Would you like that, grandma? And would Uncle Magnus like it?"
"We should sacrifice ourselves, honey, we should sacrifice ourselves that you might be well off and happy."
"But I don't want to be well off if you and Uncle Magnus are going to be poor. And I shouldn't be happy at all--I should be miserable."
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" moaned Anna, unable to say more. And then the girl turned with a smile to Christian Christiansson, who was throbbing with pride and pain, and she said:
"It is very, very good of you, sir, and there isn't another girl in the world who wouldn't be glad to go; but I can't, you must see yourself I can't--I must stay with my uncle. Grandma is going to do so, and why shouldn't I?"
"He would be better without either of us, Elin," said Anna.
"Don't say that, grandma."
"I do say it, my child, and if you only knew how cruel the world is----"
"But God isn't, and He will not separate us now after we have been together so long. You said so yourself, you know, when I talked of going into service. You said He would find another way, and He will--I'm sure He will."
It wrung Anna's heart to have her own teaching coming back to reproach her, yet thinking of Magnus she made one more effort. "But don't you see, dear, that if you stay with Uncle Magnus he will lose the land, whereas if you go with this gentleman he will be able to keep it?"