Marianne did not like to tell her friend what she knew and to consult with her about things she could not comprehend, for ’Lizebeth had evidently no love for the two and was full of distrust, and Marianne had taken them both into her heart so that she could not bear sharp remarks about them even from her good friend.  She therefore was silent and ’Lizebeth could get nothing more out of her concerning her lodgers.

During this long talk a good deal of time had passed.  ’Lizebeth rose from the wooden bench behind the table where she and Marianne had been sitting and was about to bid good-bye.  But Marianne would not allow that, for the friend must first drink a cup of coffee; then she was going to walk with her.  So they did, and as the two friends wandered together through the evening, they had much to tell each other and were very talkative; only when ’Lizebeth began to talk about the strangers in Marianne’s house, was the latter silent and hardly spoke.  Where the road went into the woods, they parted, and Marianne had to promise to return the call as soon as possible.  Then ’Lizebeth stepped out vigorously and arrived at home in such good spirits that the parson’s wife resolved to send her often to Marianne on a visit.

When Marianne on her return came near her cottage, she heard lovely singing; she well knew the song.  Every evening at twilight the stranger sat down at the piano and sang, and she sang so beautifully and with a voice that came from such depths that it touched Marianne’s heart so that she could not tear herself away when she heard the song, until it was ended.  But there was one song in particular which Marianne loved to hear and which the woman sang every day, either at the beginning or the end of her songs.  It always seemed as if a great joy came into her voice and as if she wanted to make this joy appeal to all who listened.  And yet this song touched Marianne’s heart so deeply that she wept every time she heard it.  So it happened this evening.  There was a log lying before the house-door which served her for a resting-place when, in the evening, she wanted to get a little fresh air.  She rolled it under the window so that she might look for a moment into the room.  There sat the lady, and her large blue eyes looked up to the evening sky so seriously and sorrowfully, and yet there was something which sounded again like a great joy in the beautiful song she was singing.  The little boy sat on a footstool beside her and looked at his mother with his joyful, bright eyes, and listened to the singing.

Marianne could not look long.  A strange feeling came over her, and she stepped down from the log, put her apron to her eyes and wept and wept, until the singing had died away.

CHAPTER IV

The Same Night in Two Houses

When on this evening Edi and Ritz were lying in their bed and Mother had finished saying evening prayer with them and had closed the door after her, Edi began:  “Have you noticed, Ritz, that Father is almost like God?  He already knows the thing before one has told half of it.”