Karna looked cunning. "She asked to be free because she wanted to
go to church. She go to church! I should just like to see her! No,
she's going down to the tailor's in the village, and there I suppose
she'll meet Malmberg, a townsman of hers. I wonder she isn't above
having anything to do with a married man."

"She can go on the spree with any one she likes, for all I care,"
answered Gustav, kicking the last wheel into place with his foot,
while Karna stood looking at him kindly. But the next moment she
spied a face behind the curtains up in one of the windows, and
hurried off with her pails. Gustav spat contemptuously between his
teeth after her. She was really too old for his seventeen years;
she must be at least forty; and casting another long look at Bodil,
he went across to the coachhouse with oil-can and keys.

The high white house that closed the yard at its upper end, had
not been built right among the other buildings, but stood proudly
aloof, unconnected with them except by two strips of wooden paling.
It had gables on both sides, and a high basement, in which were
the servants' hall, the maids' bedrooms, the wash-house, the
mangling-room, and the large storerooms. On the gable looking on
to the yard was a clock that did not go. Pelle called the building
the Palace, and was not a little proud of being allowed to enter
the basement. The other people on the farm did not give it such
a nice name.

He was the only one whose awe of the House had nothing sinister
about it; others regarded it in the light of a hostile fortress.
Every one who crossed the paved upper yard, glanced involuntarily