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Page 35
"We have arranged to have him sent to my place to-morrow morning. I
know he'll come, because he thinks he can get his liquor. But, of
course, you must know, Karin, that that's out of the question. No,
indeed! It's no more to be had with me than with you. I shall
expect him to-morrow. He is to occupy the little room off the shop,
and I've promised him that I'll let his door stand open, so that he
may see all persons who come and go."
At Halvor's first words Karin wondered whether this was not
something he had made up, but gradually it dawned on her that he
was in earnest.
As a matter of fact, Karin had always imagined that Halvor had
courted her only because of her money and good connections. It had
never occurred to her that he might have loved her for herself
alone. She probably knew she was not the kind of girl that men care
for. Nor had she herself been in love, either with Halvor or Elof.
But now that Halvor had come to her in her trouble, and wanted to
help her, she was completely overwhelmed by the bigness of the man.
She marvelled that he could be so kind. She felt that surely he
must like her a little, since he had come like that, to help her.
Karin's heart began to beat violently and anxiously. She awoke to
something she had never before experienced, and wondered what it
meant. Then all at once she realized that Halvor's kindness had
thawed her frozen heart, and that love was beginning to flame up in
her. Halvor went on unfolding his plan, fearing all the while that
she might oppose him. "It's hard for Elof, too," he pleaded. "He
needs a change of scene, and he won't make as much trouble for me
as he has made for you. It will be quite different when he's got a
man to reckon with."
Karin hardly knew what she should do. She felt that she could not
make a movement or say a word without letting Halvor see that she
was in love with him; yet she knew she would have to give him some
kind of an answer.
Presently Halvor stopped talking and simply looked at her.
Then Karin rose, involuntarily went up to him, and patted him on
the hand. "God bless you, Halvor!" she said in broken tones. "God
bless you!"
Despite all her precautions, Halvor must have divined something,
for he quickly grasped her hands and drew her to him.
"No! No!" she cried in alarm, freeing herself; then she hurried
away.
***
Elof had gone to live with Halvor. All summer he lay in the little
bedroom off the shop. Halvor was not troubled with the care of him
for a great while, for in the autumn he died.
Shortly after his death Mother Stina said to Halvor: "Now you must
promise me one thing: promise me that you will exercise patience as
regards Karin."
"Of course I'll have patience," Halvor returned, wonderingly.
"She's somebody worth winning, even if one has to wait seven long
years."
But it was not so easy for Halvor to have patience, for he soon
learned that this one and that one was paying court to Karin. This
began within a fortnight of Elof's funeral.
One Sunday afternoon Halvor sat on the steps in front of his shop,
watching the people coming and going. Presently it occurred to him
that an unusual number of fine rigs were moving in the direction of
the Ingmar Farm. In the first carriage sat an inspector from
Bergsana Foundry, in the second was the son of the proprietor of
the Karmsund Inn, and last came the Magistrate Berger Sven Persson,
who was the richest man in western Dalecarlia, and a sensible and
highly esteemed man, too. He was not young, to be sure; he had been
twice married, and was now a widower for the second time.
When Halvor saw Berger Sven Persson driving by, he could not
contain himself any longer. He jumped to his feet and started down
the road; in almost no time he was over the bridge and on the side
of the river where the Ingmar Farm lay.
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