who were going to town. Finally Brita came. When the gate opened he
felt a cramp at the heart. "It is she," he thought. His eyes
dropped. He was as if paralyzed, and could not move. When he had
recovered himself, he looked up; she was then standing on the steps
outside the gate.

She stood there a moment, quite still; she had pushed back her
headshawl and, with eyes that were clear and open, she looked out
across the landscape. The prison stood on high ground, and beyond
the town and the stretches of forest she could see her native
hills.

Suddenly she seemed to be shaken by some unseen force; she covered
her face with her hands and sank down upon the stone step. Ingmar
could hear her sobs from where he stood.

Presently he went over to her, and waited. She was crying so hard
that she seemed deaf to every other sound; and he had to stand
there a long time. At last he said:

"Don't cry like that, Brita!"

She looked up. "O God in Heaven!" she exclaimed, "are you here?"

Instantly all that she had done to him flashed across her mind--and
what it must have cost him to come. With a cry of joy she threw her
arms around his neck and began to sob again.

"How I have longed that you might come!" she said.