“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.