Then the innocent young face which had been so full of beautiful trust in the greatness and the goodness of God to triumph over all perils and privations clouded over for one moment, and she said, "Do you want me to go, grandma? And does Uncle Magnus want it?"
Neither of them answered her, and she looked from one to the other--Anna brushing her eyes with the back of her wrinkled hand, and Magnus standing motionless with a white face broken up like the melting snow--and then the cruel swelling in the girl's heart subsided and her eyes shone like the sun.
"I know you don't," she answered herself. "You are only thinking about me."
And then the brave little soul tossed up her head with a proud look and said, "As for the land--if it comes to losing that or losing me, I know what Uncle Magnus will say. He will say--I know he will--'Let me keep my little Elin and the land--the land may go!'"
"And so I do, my darling," cried Magnus, and he opened his great arms to her, and she ran into them and was gathered to his breast.
At the next moment Anna had joined them and Magnus had put his arms around both, and it was just as if they had conquered a great temptation--as if some dark shadow which had threatened to separate them had passed away--for they were clinging together and crying like children.
Christian Christiansson stood aside for a moment and looked on at their happiness, feeling himself without part or lot in it, and then, fearing that he might cry out and betray himself or break down altogether, he turned away and fled into the guest-room.
V
He threw himself face downward on the bed, and the waters of Marah went over and over him. Sight of the happiness he had lost the right to claim was the hardest experience that had yet come to him, and he wept bitterly. "My child! My dear, dear child!" he had wanted to cry, but those were words of proud endearment which he might never use except in the voiceless chambers of his empty heart.
But this mood lasted only for a few moments, and then a fierce and almost savage jealousy took possession of him, and he dried his eyes and sat up in contempt of his own weakness. What right had any one to rob him of his child? Elin was flesh of his flesh, and no man should take her away. Even the law would recognize his right to his own offspring. He had merely to say to the Sheriff, "She is mine," and the Sheriff would have no choice but to deliver her up to him.