"Surely I can forgive you that," he said in the same even tone. "We will never speak of the matter again." She shivered, dropped her eyes, and sat as though she were expecting something. "It was simply a stroke of good fortune, Hildur," he said, coming forward and grasping her hand, "that it is over between us, for to-day it became clear to me that I love another. I think I have been fond of her for a long time, but I did not know it until to-day." "Whom do you care for, Gudmund?" came in a colorless voice from Hildur. "It doesn't matter. I shall not marry her, as she does not care for me, nor can I marry anyone else." Hildur raised her head. It was not easy to tell what was taking place in her. At this moment she felt that she, the rich farmer's daughter, with all her beauty and all her possessions, was nothing to Gudmund. She was proud and did not wish to part from him without teaching him that she had a value of her own, apart from all the external things. "I want you to tell me, Gudmund, if it is Helga from Big Marsh whom you love." Gudmund was silent. "It was she who came to me and taught me what I should do that all might be well between us. She knew you were innocent, but she did not say so to you. She let me know it first." Gudmund looked her steadily in the eyes. "Do you think this means that she has a great affection for me?" "You may be sure of it, Gudmund. I can prove it. No one in the world could love you more than she does." He walked rapidly across the floor and back, then he stopped suddenly before Hildur. "And you--why do you tell me this?" "Surely I do not wish to stand beneath Helga in magnanimity!" "Oh, Hildur, Hildur!" he cried, placing his hands on her shoulders and shaking her to give vent to his emotion. "You don't know, oh, you don't know how much I like you at this moment! You don't know how happy you have made me!" Helga sat by the roadside and waited. With her cheek resting on her hand, she sat and pictured Hildur and Gudmund together and thought how happy they must be now. While she sat thus, a servant from Närlunda came along. He stopped when he saw her. "I suppose you have heard that affair which concerns Gudmund?" She had. "It was not true, fortunately. The real murderer is already in custody." "I knew it couldn't be true," said Helga. Thereupon the man went, and Helga sat there alone, as before. So they knew it already down there! It was not necessary for her to go to Närlunda and tell of it. She felt herself so strangely shut out! Earlier in the day she had been so eager. She had not thought of herself--only that Gudmund and Hildur's marriage should take place. But now it flashed upon her how alone she was. And it was hard not to be something to those of whom one is fond. Gudmund did not need her now, and her own child had been appropriated by her mother, who would hardly allow her to look at it.