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"I thought," she suddenly began again, "that I would have to suffer,terribly even, for all this. But no, it has not been so. There is agrace in the world, such as none of us have known about. The world isnot a hard or severe place, as people tell us. It is not even just. You are forgiven everything. The fine things of the world you cannotwrong or harm, they are much too strong for that. You could not wrongor harm Jens, no one could. "

"And, now, after he has died," she said, "I understand everything. "

Again she sat immovable, gently poised upon the tree stem. For the first time during their talk she looked round her, her gaze ran slowly, almost caressingly, along the forest scenery.

"It is difficult," she said, "to explain what it feels like to understand things. I have never been good at finding words, I am not like Jens. But it has seemed to me ever since March, since the Spring began, that I have known well why things happened, why,—for instance,—they all flowered. And why the birds came. The generosity of the world, Papa’s and your kindness too! As we walked in the wood today, I thought that now I have got back my sight, and my sense of smell, from when I was a little girl. All things here tell me, erf their own, what they signify. " She stopped, her gaze steadying. "They signify Charlie," she said. After a long pause she added: "And I, I am Emilie. Nothing can alter that either. "

She made a gesture as if to pull on her gloves that lay in her bonnet,but she put them back again, and remained quiet, as before.

"Now I have told you all," she said. "Now you must decide what we areto do. "

"Papa will never know," she said gently and thoughtfully. "None of them will ever know. Only you. I have thought, if you will let me do so, that you and I, when we talk of Jens,"—she made a slight pause, and Jakob thought: "She has never talked of him till today"—"might talk of all these things too. "

"Only in one thing," she said slowly, "am I wiser than you. I know that it would be better, much better, and easier for both you and me, if you would believe me. "

Jakob was accustomed to take a quick summary of a situation, and to make his dispositions accordingly. He waited a moment, after she had ceased to talk, to do so now.

"Yes, my dear," he said, "that is true. "