to hum the Bridal March. As Astrid sat listening to it, she saw Knut's
handsome dark head as she used to see it in her young days; she
followed him out to the mountain-side, where he blew the March on his
herd-boy's horn, she drove to church by his side--all his brightness
and cleverness lived again for her!

But in Mildrid's soul a new feeling began to stir. Whilst she sat and
sang for grandmother, she asked herself: "Will it ever be played for
me?" The thought grew upon her, the March spoke to her of such radiant
happiness. She saw a bride's crown glittering in its sunshine, and a
long, bright future beyond that. Sixteen--and she asked herself:
"Shall I, shall I ever have some one sitting beside me, with the
Bridal March shining in his eyes? Only think, if father and mother
were one day to drive with me in such a procession, with the people
greeting us on every side, on to the house where mother was jeered at
that day, past Ole Haugen's flower-covered grave, up to the altar, in
a glory of happiness! Think what it would be if I could give father
and mother that consolation!" And the child's heart swelled, imagining
all this to herself, swelled with pride and with devotion to those
dear parents who had suffered so much.

These were the first thoughts that she did not confide to Beret. Soon
there were more. Beret, who was now eleven, noticed that she was left
more to herself, but did not understand that she was being gradually
shut out from Mildrid's confidence, till she saw another taken into
her place. This was Inga, from the neighbouring farm, a girl of
eighteen, their own cousin, newly betrothed. When Mildrid and Inga
walked about in the fields, whispering and laughing, with their arms
round each other, as girls love to go, poor Beret would throw herself
down and cry with jealousy.