Question -
Answer -
As the Peddler had recently stolen the Crofter’s money, he felt that the police would be on the lookout for him. If he accepted the ironmaster’s invitation to stay for a night at his home, he would probably have been found out as an imposter by the ironmaster, who had mistaken him to be his former colleague in the dim light of the furnace. Then he would have been arrested. So he declined the ironmaster’s invitation.
But when Edla later on came again to invite him, she was very kind to him and, even though to her he did not look like her father’s former colleague, spoke to him with compassion. This gave confidence to the Peddler that he would be safe and so he accepted her invitation.