!’

‘I did nothing to her,’ he said.

‘Oh, it was too shameful, the way you simply swept her off her feet.’

‘That was Schuhplatteln,’ he replied, with a bright grin.

‘Ha — ha — ha!’ laughed Gudrun.

Her mockery quivered through his muscles with curious re-echoes. When he slept he seemed to crouch down in the bed, lapped up in his own strength, that yet was hollow.

And Gudrun slept strongly, a victorious sleep. Suddenly, she was almost fiercely awake. The small timber room glowed with the dawn, that came upwards from the low window. She could see down the valley when she lifted her head: