This is all I have to say to you;
but now you, who are his father, know my sentiments, and if you desire
the welfare of him whom this concerns, you had better advise him to
lead the stream where it can find its course; across my possessions it
is forbidden."
He turned away with short, hasty steps, lifting his right foot rather
higher than the left, and grumbling to himself.
Those left behind were completely sobered; a foreboding of evil had
become blended with their jesting and laughter, and the house seemed,
for a while, as empty as after a great fright. The mother who, from
the kitchen door had heard everything, anxiously sought Oyvind's eyes,
scarcely able to keep back her tears, but she would not make it harder
for him by saying a single word. After they had all silently entered
the house, the father sat down by the window, and gazed out after Ole,
with much earnestness in his face; Oyvind's eyes hung on the slightest
change of countenance; for on his father's first words almost depended
the future of the two young people. If Thore united his refusal with
Ole's, it could scarcely be overcome. Oyvind's thoughts flew,
terrified, from obstacle to obstacle; for a time he saw only poverty,
opposition, misunderstanding, and a sense of wounded honor, and every
prop he tried to grasp seemed to glide away from him. It increased his
uneasiness that his mother was standing with her hand on the latch of
the kitchen-door, uncertain whether she had the courage to remain
inside and await the issue, and that she at last lost heart entirely
and stole out.
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