little.

"Only fancy, Oline," she said to the maid, "when it's all done, and you'll
only have to turn on a tap."

But Oline, who was old, did not look anyways delighted. It was like going
against Providence, she said, to go sending water through a pipe right
into the house. She'd carried all the water she'd a use for these twenty
years; what was she to do now?

"Take a rest," said I.

"Rest, indeed! We're made to work, I take it, not to rest."

"And sew things against the time you get married," said Froken Elisabeth,
with a smile.

It was only girlish talk, but I was grateful to her for taking a little
part in the talk with us, and staying there for a while. And heavens, how
I did try to behave, and talk smartly and sensibly, showing off like a
boy. I remember it still. Then suddenly Froken Elisabeth seemed to
remember it wasn't proper for her to stay out here with us any longer, and
so she went.

That evening I went up to the churchyard, as I had done so many times
before, but seeing Frokenen already there, I turned away, and took myself
off into the woods. And afterwards I thought: now she will surely be
touched by my humility, and think: poor fellow, he showed real delicacy in
that. And the next thing, of course, was to imagine her coming after me. I
would get up from the stone where I was sitting, and give a greeting. Then