window, one of the maids was going through her Sunday ablutions,
with shoulders and arms bare, and her chemise pushed down below
her bosom.

The big dairymaid, Karna, went past him to the pump with two large
buckets. As she returned, she splashed some water on to one of his
boots, and he looked up with an oath. She took this as an invitation
to stop, and put down her pails with a cautious glance up at the
windows of the big house.

"You've not had all the sleep you ought to have had, Gustav," she
said teasingly, and laughed.

"Then it isn't your fault, at any rate," he answered roughly. "Can
you patch my everyday trousers for me to-day?"

"No, thank you! I don't mend for another to get all the pleasant
words!"

"Then you can leave it alone! There are plenty who'll mend for me
without you!" And he bent again to his work.

"I'll see if I can get time," said the big woman meekly. "But I've
got all the work in the place to do by myself this afternoon; the
others are all going out."

"Yes, I see Bodil's washing herself," said Gustav, sending a squirt
of tobacco-juice out of his mouth in the direction of the wash-house
window. "I suppose she's going to meeting, as she's doing it so,
thoroughly."