He felt very pleased with himself after that speech; no one could ever imagine the least unrest behind it.
"You didn't seem to care so very much for her," said Elise.
He saw that her eyes were dewed, and he winced. A little strangeness in her voice, too, confused him, and the look on his face changed suddenly.
"Where's your splendid coolness now?" she asked, and smiled.
"You've taken it," he said in a low voice.
Then suddenly she stroked his hand, a single touch, and left him. She hurried in through the rooms, seeing none and hearing nothing, only hurrying on. In the passage stood her brother, and he called to her; she turned her all-smiling face full towards him, and the tears dripped from her lashes; then she ran upstairs to her room.
A quarter of an hour later her father came up. She flung her arms round his neck and said, "I can't!"
"Eh? No, no. But you must come down again and dance; they're asking after you. And what have you been saying to Rolandsen? He's changed so all in a moment. Have you been rude to him again?"
"Because if you were, you'll have to put it right at once. He's leaving at twelve o'clock to-night."
"Leaving at twelve!" Elise was ready in a moment, and said, "I'm coming down at once."
She went downstairs, and found Captain Henriksen.
"I dare say it's so much the worse for me, but I simply can't."
She could not give any further explanation, and the Captain apparently having no more to say, nothing more was said. Elise went down to the telegraph station and telegraphed Jomfru van Loos, Bergen, not to accept Ove Rolandsen's offer, same being again not seriously meant. Await letter.--ELISE MACK.
Then she went home and joined the dancers again.
"Is it true you're leaving at twelve to-night?" she asked Rolandsen.
"Then I'm going with you to the factory. I've something to do there."
"'Growth of the Soil' is a beautiful work of genius ... a triumphant exhibition of what can be done with an objective method by a proved master."--_Westminster Gazette._
"An absorbing story told with a marvellous simplicity."
"A picture of infinite tenderness and humanity."--_Daily Telegraph._
"Not for a long time have I been held fascinated by the development of a single human being in fiction as I am with this man Isak."