“Thank you for coming.”

“What heat and what a distance!  Have you been here long?”

“No.  Since we are watched in the evening, we must make use of the noon.  But after this I think we will not act so secretly, nor take so much trouble; it was just about this I wanted to speak to you.”

“Not so secretly?”

“I know very well that all that is done secretly pleases you best; but to show courage pleases you also.  To-day I have come to have a long talk with you, and now you must listen.”

“Is it true that you are trying to be agriculturist for the district?”

“Yes, and I expect to succeed.  In this I have a double purpose:  first, to win a position for myself; but secondly, and chiefly, to accomplish something which your grandfather can see and understand.  Luckily it chances that most of the Heidegard freeholders are young people who wish for improvements and desire help; they have money, too.  So I shall begin among them.  I shall regulate everything from their stables to their water-pipes; I shall give lectures and work; I shall fairly besiege the old man with good deeds.”

“Those are brave words.  What more, Oyvind?”

“Why, the rest simply concerns us two.  You must not go away.”

“Not if he orders it?”

“And keep nothing secret that concerns us two.”

“Even if he torments me?”

“We gain more and defend ourselves better by allowing everything to be open.  We must manage to be so constantly before the eyes of people, that they are constantly forced to talk about how fond we are of each other; so much the sooner will they wish that all may go well with us.  You must not leave home.  There is danger of gossip forcing its way between those who are parted.  We pay no heed to any idle talk the first year, but we begin by degrees to believe in it the second.  We two will meet once a week and laugh away the mischief people would like to make between us; we shall be able to meet occasionally at a dance, and keep step together until everything sings about us, while those who backbite us are sitting around.  We shall meet at church and greet each other so that it may attract the attention of all those who wish us a hundred miles apart.  If any one makes a song about us we will sit down together and try to get up one in answer to it; we must succeed if we assist each other.  No one can harm us if we keep together, and thus show people that we keep together.  All unhappy love belongs either to timid people, or weak people, or sick people, or calculating people, who keep waiting for some special opportunity, or cunning people, who, in the end, smart for their own cunning; or to sensuous people that do not care enough for each other to forget rank and distinction; they go and hide from sight, they send letters, they tremble at a word, and finally they mistake fear, that constant uneasiness and irritation