But to the maids, with whom he felt less fear, Grindhusen had said it didn't look as if they'd be seeing Fruen back again at all. She had been asking him all the way, he said, about Engineer Lassen; she must have gone off to him after all. And, surely, she'd be well enough with him, a man with any amount of money and grand style and all. Then came another card for Fruen from the Captain, this time only to say would she please send Nils to meet him at the station on Friday, and be sure to bring his fur coat. The post card had been delayed--it was Thursday already. And this time it was fortunate, really, that Ragnhild happened to look at the post card and see what it said. We stayed sitting in Nils's room, talking about the Captain--what he would say when he got back, and what we should say, or if we ought to say anything at all. All three of the maids were present at this council. Fruen would have had plenty of time to get to Kristiania herself by the day the Captain had written his card; she had not, it seemed--she had gone somewhere else. It was more than pitiful altogether. Said Nils: “Didn't she leave a note or anything when she went?” But no, there was nothing. Ragnhild, however, had done a thing on her own responsibility which perhaps she ought not to have done--she had taken the photos from the piano and thrown them in the stove. “Was it wrong, now?” “No, no, Ragnhild! No!” She told us, also, that she had been through Fruen's wardrobe and sorted out all handkerchiefs that were not hers. Oh, she had found lots of things up in her room--a bag with Engineer Lassen's initials worked on, a book with his full name in, some sweets in an envelope with his writing--and she had burnt it all. A strange girl, Ragnhild--yes! Was there ever such an instinct as hers? It was like the devil turned monk. Ragnhild, who made such use herself of the thick red stair-carpet and the keyholes everywhere! It suited me and my work well enough that the Captain had not ordered the carriage before; we had got the trench finished now all the way up, and I could manage without Nils for laying the pipes. I should want all hands, though, when it came to filling in again. It was rain again now, by the way; mild weather, many degrees of warmth. It was well for me, no doubt, these days that I had this work of mine to occupy my thoughts as keenly as it did; it kept away many a fancy that would surely otherwise have plagued me. Now and again I would clench my fists as a spasm of pain came over me; and when I was all alone up at the reservoir I could sometimes cry aloud up at the woods. But there was no possibility of my getting away. And where should I go if I did? * * * * * The Captain arrived. He went all through the house at once--into the parlour, out into the kitchen, then to the rooms upstairs--in his fur coat and overboots. “Where's Fruen?” he asked.