Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XI
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
in her all that which she had once chosen to worship and to
nurse — every faculty she had thought worth developing?
The love she had looked for on byways, driven by her morbid
longing and feverish restlessness — would she find it here by
surrendering to him, by shutting her eyes and giving herself to
the one man she really trusted—the one who all her instincts
told her was her conscience and her just judge?
She had not been able to do it—not in all these weeks. It
seemed to her that she ought to try and get out by her own will
from the mire into which she had descended; she wanted to
feel that it was her will from the old days which had taken the
lead of her shattered mind, so that she could get back ever so
little of the respect and confidence in herself from before.
If she was to go on living, Gunnar was life itself to her. A
few words written by him on a piece of paper, a book that
brought her a message from some emotion in his soul had
awakened the last smouldering longing back to life when after
the death of the child she had dragged herself about like a
maimed animal.
If he came now—he would win her. If he would but carry
her the first bit of the way, she would try to walk the rest of it
herself. And as she sat there waiting for him she decided in
her shrinking soul: If he comes, I shall live. If the other
one comes, I must die.
And when she heard steps on the stairs, and they were not
those of Gunnar, and there was a knock at the door, she bent
her head and went shivering to open it for Helge Gram,
instinctively feeling that she opened the door to the fate she had
challenged.
She stood looking at him while he walked into the room,
putting his hat on a chair. She had not acknowledged his
greeting this time either.
"I knew you were in town," said he. "I came the day
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
