Book 3 The Land of the Long Shadow Chapter 34

"Oh dear, oh dear!" she cried, "to think that the Fröken should be so ill--almost dying! and have nobody but you to attend to her!"

This, with a vindictive toss of the brown curls. Ulrika winced at her words--she was hurt, but she answered gently-"I have done my best," she said with a sort of grave pathos, "I have been with her night and day--had she been a daughter of my own blood, I know not how I could have served her with more tenderness. And, surely, it has been a sore and anxious time with me also--for I, too, have learned to love her!"

Her set mouth quivered,--and Britta, seeing her emotion, was ashamed of her first hasty speech. She made an act of contrition at once by putting her arms round Ulrika's neck and kissing her--a proceeding which so much astonished that devout servant of Luther, that her dull eyes filled with tears.

"Forgive me!" said the impetuous little maiden. "I was very rude and very unkind! But if you love the Fröken, you will understand how I feel--how I wish I could have helped to take care of her. And oh! the bonde!"--here she gave way to a fresh burst of tears--"the dear, good, kind, brave bonde! That he should be dead!--oh! it is too cruel--too dreadful--I can hardly believe it!"