Olaf's wife he saw that she had been crying. "What's the matter,
Clara Vavrika?" he asked kindly.

"Oh, I get blue sometimes. It was awfully jolly living there
with father. I wonder why I ever went away."

Nils spoke in a low, kind tone that he sometimes used with women:
"That's what I've been wondering these many years. You were the
last girl in the country I'd have picked for a wife for Olaf. What
made you do it, Clara?"

"I suppose I really did it to oblige the neighbours"--Clara
tossed her head. "People were beginning to wonder."

"To wonder?"

"Yes--why I didn't get married. I suppose I didn't like to
keep them in suspense. I've discovered that most girls marry out
of consideration for the neighbourhood."

Nils bent his head toward her and his white teeth flashed.
"I'd have gambled that one girl I knew would say, 'Let the
neighbourhood be damned.'"

Clara shook her head mournfully. "You see, they have it on
you, Nils; that is, if you're a woman. They say you're beginning
to go off. That's what makes us get married: we can't stand the
laugh."

Nils looked sidewise at her. He had never seen her head droop