peace in her grave! Woe is me that she must wander here so long,
till she has worn her feet to bleeding!"

"Stay, my dear foster sister!" she cried. "Stay, that I may speak
to you!"

But as she cried thus, she saw that the footprints fell yet faster
in the snow, as though the dead girl were hastening her steps.

"Now she flies from me. She looks no more for help from me," said
Elsalill.

The bloody footprints made her quite frantic, and she cried out:
"My dear foster sister, I will do all you ask if only you may find
rest in your grave!"

So soon as Elsalill had uttered these words a tall, big woman who
had followed her came up and laid a hand on her arm.

"Who may you be, crying and wringing your hands here in the
street?" the woman asked. "You call to my mind a little maid who
came to me on Friday looking for a place and then ran away from
me. Or perhaps you are the same?"

"No, I am not the same," said Elsalill, but if, as I think, you
are the hostess of the Town Cellars, then I know what maid it is
you speak of."

"Then you can tell me why she took herself off and has not come
back," said the hostess.