“And did you dance?”

“Oh, the ’prentices have only to run after beer; but when I’m a journeyman—­but, Silla, the time—­we must hurry!” he broke off suddenly.

“Oh, it’s not late yet.  One more nice one with jam—­do go in and buy it!  Oh, do, Nikolai!” she begged, and as he ran in to get what she wanted, she called after him: 

“And some sweets to eat on the way home—­some of those at four for a halfpenny.”

“Can’t you eat it as you go along, Silla?” he urged, when he came out again; “you must make haste!  Just think if she heard at home that you had been with me.”

“Pooh, there’s no hurry,” and she leaned against the wall, and regaled herself—­“for you see,” she mumbled, “father won’t be out of Mrs. Selvig’s yet a-while, and I’ll say first of all that that has kept me:  I can reckon at least half an hour for that.  And then to mother I have the excuse that it’s Saturday evening, and there were so many people in the shop that I could hardly get to the counter.  And when I won’t have any supper, you know, I’ll only say I’ve got such a headache with standing and waiting in the shop:  it was so stifling in there.  I think mother’s nose would be very fine, if she could guess that I had met you.  Well, what are you looking so solemn about?”

“She at home”—­he never named her mother in any other fashion—­“forces you into lies every single day; no one has a right to speak the truth but her!”

“Oh!” she tossed her head impatiently; she had heard this so often.

“She eats up all the honesty in the room by herself, you know, for it’s quite impossible to act honestly by her, for very terror.  She keeps discipline, and much or little, it’s all the same.  Any one who wants to speak the truth without using his fists to back it up will get thrashed as I did!  It doesn’t matter for me; but when I think of you going home and making up all those lies again, and that you are so frightened, and haven’t the strength to stand against them, Silla!”

She tried to laugh and make light of it; but her face fell sadly.  She could not bear this unpleasant subject, for she was obliged to tell lies, however angry he might be.

And then she suddenly began to hurry.

“No, no, we must go home, Nikolai.  I daren’t stand here any longer.”

Nikolai was starting off, but stopped suddenly at sight of Silla’s dismayed countenance.  She had turned her pocket inside out, and stood holding it while she gazed and searched on the ground round her.  Then, in feverish haste, she unfastened her bodice, and searched there.

“The money!  Oh, the money, Nikolai!” she cried anxiously, and went on shaking her skirt and looking about her, almost beside herself.  “The silver was wrapped up in the two dollar notes, just as father gave them to me, and I put them into my pocket at once.”

“What shall I do, Nikolai?” She began to cry, but all at once, with a sudden thought, she flew to the basket.  But it was not there.