Fru Falkenberg had been playing with her husband now for some little
time. She affected indifference to his indifference, and consoled
herself with the casual attentions of men staying in the house. Now one
and now another of them left, but stout Captain Bror and the lady with
the shawl stayed on, and Lassen, the young engineer, stayed too. Captain
Falkenberg looked on as if to say: “Well and good, stay on by all means,
my dear fellow, as long as you please.” And it made no impression on him
when his wife said “Du” to Lassen and called him Hugo. “Hugo!” she
would call, standing on the steps, looking out. And the Captain would
volunteer carelessly: “Hugo's just gone down the road.”
One day I heard him answer her with a bitter smile and a wave of his
hand towards the lilacs: “Little King Hugo is waiting for you in his
kingdom.” I saw her start; then she laughed awkwardly to cover her
confusion, and went down in search of Lassen.
At last she had managed to wring some expression of feeling out of him.
She would try it again.
This was on a Sunday.
Later in the day Fruen was strangely restless; she said a few kindly
words to me, and mentioned that both Nils and I had managed our work
very well.
“Lars has been to the post office today,” she said, “to fetch a letter
for me. It's one I particularly want. Would you mind going up to his
place and bringing it down for me?”