She had been my mother's nurse, and was attached to her with her whole soul.

When my mother went out of her mind, she begged earnestly to become her guardian in the blue room; but this had to be given up, as it was evident that it was just her presence that most excited the patient's mind.

My mother could not bear to see father either, and me they never dared show her at all.
Old Anne Kvaen had been my mother's only confidante.

She was extremely superstitious and strange.

In her imagination, hobgoblins and gnomes occupied the store-house and boat-house, as surely as my father resided in the main building; and under the mountain to the east of the harbour, the underground people carried on, invisibly, their fishing and trading with Bergen, just as my father did his, visibly, in the world.