The first time I saw Fru Falkenberg close to was one afternoon as I was going out of the kitchen. She came walking across the courtyard, a slender, bareheaded figure. I raised my cap and looked at her; her face was strangely young and innocent to see. And with perfect indifference she answered my “_Goddag_,” and passed on. It could not be all over for good between the Captain and his wife. I based this view upon the following grounds: Ragnhild, the parlour-maid, was her mistress's friend and trusted spy. She noted things on Fruen's behalf, went last to bed, listened on the stairs, made a few swift, noiseless steps when she was outside and somebody called. She was a handsome girl, with very bright eyes, and fine and warm-blooded into the bargain. One evening I came on her just by the summer-house, where she stood sniffing at the lilacs; she started as I came up, pointed warningly towards the summer-house, and ran off with her tongue between her teeth. The Captain was aware of Ragnhild's doings, and once said to his wife so all might hear--he was drunk, no doubt, and annoyed at something or other: “That Ragnhild's an underhanded creature; I'd be glad to be rid of her.” Fruen answered: “It's not the first time you've wanted to get Ragnhild out of the way; Heaven knows what for! She's the best maid we've ever had.” “For that particular purpose, I dare say,” he retorted. This set me thinking. Fruen was perhaps crafty enough to keep this girl spying, simply to make it seem as if she cared at all what her husband did. Then people could imagine that Fruen, poor thing, went about secretly longing for him, and being constantly disappointed and wronged. And then, of course, who could blame her if she did the like in return, and went her own way? Heaven knows if that was the way of it! One day later on the Captain changed his tactics. He had not managed to free himself from Ragnhild's watchfulness; she was still there, to be close at hand when he was talking to Elisabet in some corner, or making towards the summer-house late in the evening to sit there with some one undisturbed. So he tried another way, and began making himself agreeable to that same Ragnhild. Oho! 'twas a woman's wit--no doubt, 'twas Elisabet--had put him up to that! We were sitting at the long dining-table in the kitchen, Nils and I and the lad; Fruen was there, and the maids were busy with their own work. Then in comes the Captain from the house with a brush in his hand. “Give my coat a bit of a brush, d'you mind?” says he to Ragnhild. She obeyed. When she had finished, he thanked her, saying: “Thank you, my child.” Fruen looked a little surprised, and, a moment after, sent her maid upstairs for something. The Captain looked after her as she went, and said: “Wonderfully bright eyes that girl has, to be sure.”