“What do you want to tell God, that He does not know?” mocked Jofrid. “Does He not guide your thoughts, Tönne? What will you tell Him?” She thought that Tönne was stupid and obstinate. She had found him so in the beginning of their acquaintance, but since then she had not thought of it, but had loved him for his good heart. “We will confess to the father, Jofrid, and offer him compensation.” “What will you offer him?” she asked. “The house and the goats.” “He will certainly demand an enormous compensation for his only son. All that we possess would not be enough.” “We will give ourselves as slaves into his power, if he is not content with less.” At these words Jofrid was seized by cold despair, and she hated Tönne from the depths of her soul. Everything she would lose appeared so plainly to her,—freedom, for which her ancestors had ventured their lives, the house, her comforts, honor and happiness. “Mark my words, Tönne,” she said hoarsely, half choked with pain, “that the day you do that thing will be the day of my death.” After that no more words were exchanged between them, but they remained sitting on the doorstep until the day came. Neither found a word to appease or to conciliate; each felt fear and scorn of the other. The one measured the other by the standard of his own anger, and they found each other narrow-minded and bad-tempered. After that night Jofrid could not refrain from letting Tönne feel that he was her inferior. She let him understand in the presence of others that he was stupid, and helped him with his work so that he had to think how much stronger she was. She evidently wished to take away from him all rights as master of the house. Sometimes she pretended to be very lively, to distract him and to prevent him from brooding. He had not done anything to carry out his plan, but she did not believe that he had given it up. During this time Tönne became more and more as he was before his marriage. He grew thin and pale, silent and slow-witted. Jofrid’s despair increased each day, for it seemed as if everything was to be taken from her. Her love for Tönne came back, however, when she saw him unhappy. “What is any of it worth to me if Tönne is ruined?” she thought. “It is better to go into slavery with him than to see him die in freedom.” Jofrid, however, could not at once decide to obey Tönne. She fought a long and severe fight. But one morning she awoke in an unusually calm and gentle mood. Then she thought that she could now do what he demanded. And she waked him, saying that it should be as he wished. Only that one day he should grant her to say farewell to everything.