Chapter IV.
Shortly after the confirmation she went one day to see Ödegaard’s sisters, but soon became conscious that Ödegaard had made a grave mistake; for the priest did not deign to notice her, and his daughters, both older than Ödegaard, were cold and formal. They contented themselves with giving her brief instructions from their brother as to how she was now to occupy herself. The whole forenoon, it seemed, she was to take part in the domestic duties of a house in the outskirts of the town, and in the afternoon attend sewing-school; she was to sleep at home and have her supper and breakfast there. She did all that had been planned for her to do, and took pleasure in it as long as it was a novelty, but later, and especially when summer came, she found it irksome; for during that season she had been in the habit of sitting in the forest the whole day long, and there she had read her books, which she now missed from the bottom of her heart, as she missed Ödegaard and missed companion-
