Chapter 27

Elizabeth was more agitated even than usual after a scene of this kind.
When he had struck her son, her indignation had almost mastered her; and
it frightened her now to think how near she had been to an explosion.
This time the so-often-repeated excuses which she had accustomed herself
to make for him would not suggest themselves; and as she lay awake in
the stillness of the night, and looked back through the years that were
gone, it seemed as if she was struggling and labouring on for ever
without any prospect of getting nearer to the goal, and that her
patience was wellnigh exhausted. Had she no claim at all to
consideration? or must she be for ever silent like this, till one of
them should at last be laid in Tromö churchyard?

These thoughts, having been once roused, would not be repressed again.
They held possession of her during the following day too; and she could
settle down to no work of any kind. She dreaded that Salvé might
unexpectedly return, and did not know how she should receive him,--she
no longer felt sure of being able to control herself. Her own house had
all of a sudden become confined and suffocating, as if it were a prison
in which she had sat for years: it seemed as if she could bear this way
of living no longer.

On one of the following days a neighbour came in with a message from her
aunt. She was ill, and wished Elizabeth to come and see her.

Leaving word, accordingly, for Salvé when he returned, where she was
gone, she took Henrik with her, and set out at once for Arendal. It was
almost a relief to think that she would be away this time when he came
home.

That old Mother Kirstine should be laid up, was, in its way, an event in
the place. Having been professed sick-nurse for so many years, she was
connected by ties of grateful recollection with a number of families.
Men who were now fathers themselves remembered well her face bending
over them when as children they had tossed about in measles or fever;
and when any more serious illness now occurred in any of their
households, she appeared upon the scene as a matter of course without
waiting to be sent for. And it was a comfort in itself to see that
strong, self-possessed old woman, with her quiet experienced tact and
untiring faculty of keeping awake, moving about the sick-bed, and giving
her directions with a confidence that brooked no contradiction. Her
position, in fact, was such, that when a new doctor arrived he soon
perceived that the first thing he had to do, if he was to have any
reputation in the town, would be to win the confidence of old Mother
Kirstine.

Young Fru Beck, amongst others, had constantly sent to inquire after
her; and when she heard that Elizabeth was there, she