It was not the place for her
now; she had learned to look differently at life.
Strange, how one could come to look differently at things! Inger found
no pleasure now in admiring a new calf; she did not clap her hands in
surprise when Isak came down from the hills with a big basket of fish;
no, she had lived for six years among greater things. And of late she
had even ceased to be heavenly and sweet when she called him in to
dinner. "Your food's ready, aren't you coming in?" was all she said
now. And it didn't sound nice. Isak wondered a little at first; it was
a curious way to speak; a nasty, uncaring, take-it-or-leave-it way to
speak. And he answered: "Why, I didn't know 'twas ready." But when
Inger pointed out that he ought to have known, or might have guessed
it, anyway, by the sun, he said no more, and let the matter drop.
Ah, but once he got a hold on her and used it--that was when she tried
to steal his money from him. Not that Isak was a miser in that way,
but the money was clearly his. Ho, it was nearly being ruin and
disaster for her that time! But even then it was not exactly
thoroughgoing, out-and-out wickedness on Inger's part; she wanted the
money for Eleseus--for her blessed boy Eleseus in town, who was asking
for his _Daler_ again.
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