diff --git a/src/html.cc b/src/html.cc
index 870bd03..74b40ad 100644
--- a/src/html.cc
+++ b/src/html.cc
@@ -1078,7 +1078,6 @@ static void Html_process_space_pre_line(DilloHtml *html, const char *space,
 static void Html_process_space(DilloHtml *html, const char *space,
                                int spacesize)
 {
-   char *spc;
    int i, offset;
    DilloHtmlParseMode parse_mode = S_TOP(html)->parse_mode;
 
@@ -1100,9 +1099,8 @@ static void Html_process_space(DilloHtml *html, const char *space,
              (space[i] == '\r' || (space[i] == '\n' && !html->PrevWasCR))) {
 
             if (spaceCnt) {
-               spc = dStrnfill(spaceCnt, ' ');
-               HT2TB(html)->addText (spc, spaceCnt, html->wordStyle ());
-               dFree(spc);
+               std::string spc( spaceCnt, ' ' );
+               HT2TB(html)->addText (spc.data(), spaceCnt, html->wordStyle ());
                spaceCnt = 0;
             }
             HT2TB(html)->addLinebreak (html->wordStyle ());
@@ -1134,9 +1132,8 @@ static void Html_process_space(DilloHtml *html, const char *space,
       if (spaceCnt) {
          // add break possibility for the white-space:pre-wrap case
          HT2TB(html)->addBreakOption (html->wordStyle (), false);
-         spc = dStrnfill(spaceCnt, ' ');
-         HT2TB(html)->addText (spc, spaceCnt, html->wordStyle ());
-         dFree(spc);
+         std::string spc( spaceCnt, ' ' );
+         HT2TB(html)->addText (spc.data(), spaceCnt, html->wordStyle ());
       }
 
    } else {