Britta is mine, and I must
have her back. Understand me well!--do what you have to do without
delay! Surely it is an easy thing to ruin a woman!"
Ulrika stood as though absorbed in meditation, and said nothing for some
moments. At last she murmured as though to herself--
"Mr. Dyceworthy could do much--if--"
"Ask him, then," said Lovisa imperatively. "Tell him the village is in
fear of her. Tell him that if he will do nothing _we_ will. And if all
fails, come to me again; and remember! . . . I shall not only act,--I
shall _speak_!"
And emphasizing the last word as a sort of threat, she turned and strode
out of the hut.
Ulrika followed more slowly, taking a different direction to that in
which her late companion was seen rapidly disappearing. On returning to
the minister's dwelling, she found that Mr. Dyceworthy had not yet come
back from his boating excursion. She gave no explanation of her absence
to her two fellow-servants, but went straight up to her own room--a bare
attic in the roof--where she deliberately took off her dress and bared
her shoulders and breast.
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