midday
`` Poor boy ! Only seventeen , and a wounded heart already ! The women 'll be his ruin one of these days , you 'll see ! '' At midday , when the farm-laborers ' wives came to do the milking , Lasso 's supposition was confirmed : Bodil had attached herself to a tailor 's apprentice from the village , and had left with him in the middle of the night . They laughed pityingly at Gustav , and for some time after he had to put up with their gibes at his ill-success ; but there was only one opinion about Bodil . She was at liberty to come and go with whomsoever she liked , but as long as Gustav was paying for her amusements , she ought to have kept to him . Who but the neighbor would keep the hens that ate their grain at home and laid their eggs at the neighbor 's ?