Mårbacka, and, happily, the parsonage was but five minutes' walk from there.
It sort of cut into Kaisa Nilsdotter that everything should go so well for Mamselle Lovisa—she who had made a whortleberry crown for her. Stepping back from the doorway, she saw the old housekeeper, who had come in to hear the betrothal announcement, standing just behind her. Kaisa Nilsdotter laid a heavy hand on the housekeeper's shoulder.
"I came here to find out whether Mamselle Lovisa made my bridal-crown of whortleberry green," she said. "But maybe 'twouldn't do to ask her about it on a day like this?"
The housekeeper was rather startled, but she was not one to be easily thrown off her guard.
"How can you say anything so idiotic, Kaisa!" she flouted. "Everyone in the house knows what a lot of bother Mamselle Lovisa had with your bridal-crown. We all ran about to every cottage around here, and begged the myrtle."
Kaisa stared at her as if searching her very soul to get at the truth. "But the whole parish says so," she declared.
The old housekeeper, whose sole thought was to pacify the woman and get her out of the house, lest she disturb Mamselle Lovisa on this of all days, said:
"But I tell you, Kaisa, that as sure as Mamselle Lovisa's own bridal-crown will be of myrtle was yours of myrtle, and of nothing else."
