"I never needed to do more than just call for Sigrun to make all darkness vanish away. But it did not help me this time. When I turned to the window again, there was the farmhouse, just as before, and the old woman still staring darkly and fixedly down at the same spot. "Father and mother, sitting by the hearth, were talking the same way as before. "'Yes, it will be hard for Lotta,' said mother. 'But she's young, and young folks soon forget.' "'Yes, that's true. As long as you're young,' said father. "And then they sighed, and puffed away at their pipes. "Heavy thoughts weighed on me now. I felt that father and mother were right, and that something cruel was going to happen to me. "Then I tried again. I thought of Sigrun, as she had been, when she came to me a few months back and told me that she was engaged to a clergyman she had met while she had been away staying with her friends. "She had been so happy at the thought of marrying a priest. It was just the thing for her, as a clergyman's daughter. And he had a living of his own already, and his own congregation, though he was only a little over thirty. It was only a small place, but then he was not to be there long. With his powers, he would certainly end as a bishop. "So, really, it was a fine thing that he had a home of his own already, and they could get married in the autumn. "I was a little astonished at first, for I had always thought she was going to be a nurse, but she said it was just the same when you married a priest. Better, indeed, for now she would have a whole congregation to help and look after. "I thought over all this, and looked out again, thinking it would be better now. But it was only worse, for now the old woman stood up, and I could see her face. And it was dark with anger and hate, and she lifted a clenched hand and shook it toward me, pointing with the other hand toward the gatepost. It was just as if she had said, if I dared to touch it, it would be the worse for me. "She was terrible to look at, and I was frightened, but at the same time, she was so pitifully old and helpless, I felt like crying with pity for her. "But then, just as she raised her hand, the whole thing disappeared. All--farmhouse and gatepost and the old woman herself. As if there had never been anything there at all. And oh, I felt such a relief. "Why should I be anxious, just because Sigrun had her lover staying on a visit for a day or so? And why should mother and father be anxious about me, just because they had seen him in church that day? "And then at last I saw a couple of heads appear on the river bank. And I was so glad, and called out to mother and father: "'That's Sigrun, I'm sure, coming to show me her lover. Come and look, if it isn't right--the two there coming down toward the river?' "Then mother made haste to put away her pipe and move all the chairs about and wipe up a few drops of water spilt on the floor.