shall have to lay the whole case before the old man, frankly and
clearly," he remarked to himself, "so he can advise me."

"'Winter had come and gone, yet nothing was changed. I felt at
times that if Brita were to keep on being unhappy I might better
give her up and send her home. However, it was too late to think of
that. Then, one evening, early in May, we discovered that she had
quietly slipped away. We searched for her all through the night,
and in the morning one of the housemaids found her.'

"I find it hard now to continue, and take refuge in silence. Then
father exclaims: 'In God's name, she wasn't dead, was she?' 'No,
not she,' I say, and father notes the tremor in my voice. 'Was the
child born?' asks father. 'Yes,' I reply, 'and she had strangled
it. It was lying dead beside her.' 'But she couldn't have been in
her right mind.' 'Oh, she knew well enough what she vas about!' I
say. 'She did it to get even with me for forcing myself upon her.
Still she would never have done this thing had I married her. She
said she had been thinking that since I did not want my child
honourably born, I should have no child.' Father is dumb with
grief, but by and by he says to me: 'Would you have been glad of
the child, little Ingmar?' 'Yes,' I answer. 'Poor boy! It's a shame
that you should have fallen in with a bad woman! She is in prison,
of course,' says father. 'She was sent up for three years.' 'And
it's because of this that no man will let you marry a daughter of
his?' 'Yes, but I haven't asked anyone, either.' 'And this is why
you have no standing in the parish?' 'They all think it ought not
to have gone that way for Brita. Folks say that if I had been a
sensible man, like yourself, I would have talked to her and found
out what was troubling her.' 'It's not so easy for a man to