The horses moved on, and the carriage stopped just where the light was at its full.
Emma came out to receive her mistress. Fruen handed her the rugs all in a bundle, as she had rolled them up before getting out of the carriage.
"Thanks," she said to me, glancing round as she went in. "Heavens, how dreadfully wet you are!"
A curious piece of news awaited me: Falkenberg had taken service with the Captain as a farm-hand.
This upset the plan we had agreed on, and left me alone once more. I could not understand a word of it all. Anyhow, I could think it over tomorrow.... By two in the morning I was still lying awake, shivering and thinking. All those hours I could not get warm; then at last it turned hot, and I lay there in full fever.... How frightened she had been yesterday--dared not sit down to eat with me by the roadside, and never opened her eyes to me once through all the journey....
Coming to my senses for a moment, it occurs to me I might wake Falkenberg with my tossing about, and perhaps say things in my delirium. That would never do. I clench my teeth and jump up, get into my clothes again, scramble down the stairs, and set out over the fields at a run. After a little my clothes begin to warm me; I make towards the woods, towards the spot where we had been working; sweat and rain pour down my face. If only I can find the saw and work the fever out of my body--'tis an old and tried cure of mine, that. The saw is nowhere to be seen, but I come upon the ax I had left there Saturday evening, and set to work with that. It is almost too dark to see at all, but I feel at the cut now and then with my hands, and bring down several trees. The sweat pours off me now.
Then, feeling exhausted enough, I hide the ax in its old place; it is getting light now, and I set off at a run for home.
Now, I do not want him to know about my having taken cold the day before, and perhaps go making talk of it in the kitchen; I simply mutter something about not knowing quite where I have been.
"You've been up to see Rønnaug, I bet," he said.
I answered: yes, I had been with Rønnaug, since he'd guessed it.
"'Twas none so hard to guess," he said. "Anyhow, you won't see me running after any of them now."