Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/228

 now," bantered Ane—"Miss Hansine Andersen—it sounds ever so grand!"

"Oh, be quiet, do!"

"It's all very well for you to talk like that, now you are going to be a clergyman's wife, but what is to become of us other poor creatures? I don't suppose I shall have a curate coming to court me, I shall have to put up with some old parish clerk, or shoemaker, or"

Suddenly they both started up. They heard the sound of boots on the stone steps, and then in the outer room. In an instant they were off the chair.

Emanuel came in, his expression immediately betrayed his deep disappointment at finding the red-haired friend at Hansine's side at this moment. But he quickly controlled himself, and when Ane stepped forward and congratulated him with a flaming face—her freckles standing out white—he thanked her with a hearty smile.

Then he went up to Hansine, who stood half dazed, looking at the ground, and stretched out both his hands to her. She gave him—very slowly—both hers, which he pressed long and tenderly, while he gazed at her in silence. She perfectly well understood that he wanted her to