Axel dead silent then, and he sees
how she makes but a touch or two with her hands and washes the last of
her clothes from her. 'Twas splendidly done, to his mind. And there
she stands, so utterly thoughtless of her....
A while after, they lay talking together. Ay, he had need of help for
the summer, no doubt about that.
"They said something that way," says Barbro.
He had begun his mowing and haymaking all alone again; Barbro could
judge for herself how awkward it was for him now.--Ay, Barbro
understood.--On the other hand, it was Barbro herself that had run
away and left him before, without a soul to help him, he can't forget
that. And taken her rings with her into the bargain. And on top of all
that, shameful as it was, the paper that kept on coming, that Bergen
newspaper it seemed he would never get rid of; he had had to go on
paying for it a whole year after.
"'Twas shameful mean of them," says Barbro, taking his part all the
time.
But seeing her all submissive and gentle, Axel himself could not be
altogether heartless towards her; he agreed that Barbro might have
some reason to be angry with him in return for the way he had taken
the telegraph business from her father.
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