"Don't you like him? that can't be possible!… You are never angry because he said 'thou' to you? He says that to everybody, even if he has never seen them before. And that is really right, you know; you have said so yourself.… He is really so nice. You mustn't think anything else … do you hear?" she ended quite pertinaciously. She looked so pretty with her anxious face and her sleeves turned up, that Emanuel, who knew her affection for her old teacher, couldn't find it in his heart to gainsay her, so he only answered by a smile and gently stroking her cheek. He was in reality not so much disappointed as astonished, confused, dazed by this ceaseless flow of conversation, the half of which he had not understood.
They had not, however, much time for explanations. Ole rushed into the yard, his face crimson and bathed in perspiration. In spite of his mother's prohibition he had not been able to keep away from church, and had run all the way back without stopping.
"The bishop has come," he shouted, as soon as he set foot in the yard.
"What do you say?… the bishop!" cried Emanuel and Hansine both together.
"Yes, it's quite true.… I have seen him myself. He came into the church when the Provst went into the pulpit, and now he's driven home to the Parsonage with him.
Emanuel changed colour.
