68
I'm sure/ said Frans. * You'll see, brother, she has
something that preys on her mind. Sometimes she
knits her brows, and sometimes she looks as though
she could see something. If I ask her what she's
thinking about, she looks at me with such an odd
smile, it frightens me. She can't be reading, she
always has the book open at the same page,3 -
That evening Gerbrand stood up and bent over
to look at the Bible that lay open in front of her.
* What are you reading, Agnete ? * he asked. With
a weary expression she looked up at him and said :
c Oh, I don't read any more, I don't understand
what's written there. " For that which I do I allow
not, for what I would that do I not; but what I
hate, that do I." Berkenrode was like that, and
so is my boy, I know it. And I think to myself:
what is sin, after all ? ' He pointed out to her what
was written there besides that. * Your child,' he
said,c is no different from all mankind, flesh wherein
sin dwells, but grace shall be given to him through
knowledge of the law. He must keep this in front
of his eyes, and our example of what is right.9 But
still she shook her head and she gazed into the lamp.
c That's no answer,' she said, * there's so much
written here about sin, but it's never explained.'
It was a wet autumn with heavy skies, the water
pattered incessantly from the gutter into the yard.
Agnete went into the shop whenever she heard that
they were busy, but she was soon overcome by