have something to tell you whether you go or stay. I am coming home as
fast as steam can carry me. Please, don't run off like that. Why should
you? I ask myself. But there, it's only rumor. You're not going, and
I'll see you again in a few days, when I shall tell you all about the
rest of the trip."

A smile played on Signe's face, but it soon changed to a more sober
expression. What was she to cause such a commotion in the life of a man
like Hr. Bogstad? That he was in earnest she knew. And here she was
running away from him. He would never see her again. How disappointed he
would be! She could see him driving from the station, alighting at the
ferry, springing into a boat, and skimming over to the island. Up the
steep bank he climbs, and little Hakon runs down to meet him, for which
he receives his usual bag of candy. Perhaps he gets to the house before
he finds out. Then--?

Surely the smile has changed to a tear, for Signe has wiped one away
from her cheek.

To Signe, the journey that day was made up of strange thoughts and
experiences. The landscape, the stopping at the stations, the coming and
going of people, Hr. Bogstad's letter, the folks at home, the uncertain
future,--all seemed to mingle and to form one chain of thought, which
ended only when the train rolled into the glass-covered station at
Christiania.

With a firm grasp on her valise, she picked her way through the crowd
with its noise and bustle, and placed herself safely in the care of a
hackman, who soon set her down at her lodgings.