Nay, you should have seen her horror when I told her how Thinka and I,
at the time of the breaking up of the ice last year, waded across the
mill stream in order to avoid the roundabout way by the bridge! At last
I got her to laughing with me. But I certainly believe that the pair of
elegant slippers with swansdown on them, which stuck out of a package
this morning, are for me! You see now, it is into them, nevertheless,
that my sweet little will must be put.
"She is on her guard lest they should want to put a halter about her
neck," mumbled the doctor.
Ma sighed deeply. "Such sweet small wills are so apt to grow into big
ones, and"--again a sigh--"women don't get on in the world with that."
The doctor looked meditatively down into his glass: "One of woman's
graces is flexibility, they say; but on the other hand, she is called
'proud maiden' in the ballad. There is something like a contradiction
in that."
"Oh, the devil! Divide them into two platoons! It is mostly the ugly
who have to be pliable," said the captain.
"Beauty does not last so very long, and so it is best to think of the
years when one has to be accommodating," remarked Ma, down in her
knitting-work.
The captain continued reading the letter.
The French is done in a twinkling. I am always ready with that before
breakfast, and aunt is so contented with my pronunciation; but then the
piano comes from nine to eleven. Ugh! only exercises; and then aunt
receives calls. Guess who came day before yesterday? No one else than
Student Grip. It was just as if I must have known him ever so well,
and liked him even better, so glad was I at last to see any one who
knew about us at home. But just think, I am not entirely sure that he
did not try to dictate to aunt; and then he had the boldness to look
at me as if I should agree with him. Aunt helped him to a place in
uncle's office, because she heard that he had passed such an excellent
examination and was so gifted, but had almost nothing from home to
study on.
"I ventured my three dollars on him--But how the fellow could manage to
take such high honors passes my comprehension," threw out the captain.
"But he repaid them all right, Jäger, with postage and everything."
The captain held the letter up to the light again.
And then aunt thought he would be the better for a little polish in his
ways, and enjoined him to come to her fortnightly receptions; she likes
to have young people about her; but he let aunt see that he regarded
that as a command and compulsion. And now he came in fact to make a
sort of excuse. But how they talked!
"Well, then, we shall see you again at some of our Thursday evenings?"
said aunt.
"Your ladyship no doubt remembers the occasion of my remaining away. It
was my ill-bred objections to the seven unanimous teacups which gave
supreme judgment in your celebrated small tea-fights."
"See, see, see," aunt smiled. "I can't be wrong when I say that you are
really made for social life; there is need just there for all one's
best sides."
"All one's smoothest, your ladyship means."
"Well, well, no falling back, Mr. Grip, I beg you."
"I did my best, your ladyship; for I really thought all one's most
mendacious."
"Now you are in the humor of contradiction again; and there one gets
entangled so easily, you know."
"I only think that when one does not agree with what is said, and keeps
silent, one lies."
"Then people offer up to good form, without which no social intercourse
can exist."
"Yes, what do they offer up? Truth!"
"Perhaps more correctly a little of their vanity, an opportunity of
exhibiting some bright and shining talent; that tempts young men
greatly, I believe."
"Possible, not impossible at any rate," he admitted.
"Do you see?" But then aunt said, for she never abandons her text:
"A little good manners is not out of place; and when I see a bright
young student stand talking with his hands in his pockets, or riding
backwards on a chair, then, whether the one concerned takes my motherly
candor ill or not, I always try by a little hint to adjust the defects
in his education."
You should have seen him! Hands out of his pockets, and at once he sat
up before her, as straight as a candle.
"If all were like your ladyship, I would recommend making calls," said
he, "for you are an honest woman."
"Woman! We say, lady."
"I mean an honest governor's lady; besides, I don't at all say a
good-natured!" and then he shook that great brown lock of hair down
over his forehead.
I do not need to wish for any portrait of you, for I lie thinking,
in the evenings, that I am at home. I see father so plainly, walking
up and down the room whistling, and then starting off up the office
stairs; and I pull your hair, Jörgen! and poke your head down into the
geography, so that I get you after me, and we run round, in one door
and out another, up and down in the house. Nay, I long horribly at
times. But I must not let aunt see that; it would be ungrateful. She
does not believe that one can exist anywhere but in a city.
And then there are a lot of things which I have been obliged to draw
a black mark through, because I don't at all understand them. Only
think, mother! Aunt says, that it may at most be allowable to say that
we have cows at home; but I must not presume to say that any one of
them has a calf! I should like to know how they think we get new cows,
when we kill the old ones for Christmas?
Here the captain interpolated some inarticulate noises. But an
expression of anxiety came over Ma's face, and she said faintly:
"That is because, unfortunately, we have not been able to keep the
children sufficiently away from the servants' room, and from everything
they hear there."
"You see, madam," declared the doctor, "in the city people are so proper
that a hen hardly dares to lay eggs--It is only the products of the
efforts of the land that they are willing to recognize, I can tell you."
"No," the captain put in, "it is not advisable for a poor mare to be so
indiscreet as to have a foal there."
His wife coughed gently and made an errand to her sewing-table.
Ma had been gone upstairs for more than an hour, and the clock was
getting on towards twelve.
The captain and the doctor were now sitting somewhat stupidly over the
heeltaps in their mugs, a little like the dying tallow candles, which
stood with neglected wicks, almost burned down into the sockets and
running down.
"Keep your bay, Rist. Depend on me--he has got to get up early who
takes me in on a horse--with my experience, you see. All the cavalry
horses I have picked out in my time!"
The doctor sat looking down into his glass.
"You are thinking of the cribber," said the captain, getting into a
passion; "but that was the most rascally villainy--pure cheating. He
might have been taken into court for that--But, as I tell you, keep
your bay."
"I have become a little tired of him, you see."
"See there, see there,--but that is your own fault and not the bay's,
my boy. You are always tired of the beast you have. If you should count
all the horses you have swapped, it would be a rare stable."
"They spoiled him for driving when he was a colt; he is one-sided,
he is."
"That's all bosh. I should cure him of that in a fortnight, with a
little breaking to harness."
"Oh, I am tired of sitting and pulling and hauling on one rein to keep
him out of the side of the ditch; if it were not for that, the beast
should never go out of my hand. No, had it been only that he made a few
splinters in the crib."
The captain assumed a thoughtful expression; he leaned against the back
of the sofa, and gave two or three deep, strong pulls on his pipe.
"But my Brunen is nothing at all to talk about--a little gnawing
only--with the one eye-tooth."
"Nay, my bay also gives way only on one side of the road."
Again two or three sounding puffs. The captain gave his wig a poke.
"If there is any one who could cure him of that, it is certainly I."
Dense smoke poured out of his pipe.
Over in his corner of the sofa the doctor began to clean his out.
"Besides, my Brunen is a remarkably kind animal--thunders a little on
the crib down in the stall--a horse can hardly have less of a fault,
and then so thoroughly easy on the rein--knows if one only touches
it--so extremely sensitive in his mouth--a regular beauty to drive on
the country road."
"Ye-s, ye-s; have nothing against that--fine animal!"
"Look here, Rist! All things considered, that was a driving horse for
you--stands so obediently, if one just lays the rein over his back."
"Swap off the bay, do you mean?" pondered the doctor, in a doubting
tone,--"hadn't really thought of that." He shook his head--"Only I
can't understand why he is so stiff on one rein."
"No, my boy; but I can understand it."
"If you are only not cheated in that, Jäger--trade is trade, you know."
"I cheated? Ha, ha, ha!" The captain shook with laughter and with quiet
consciousness. "Done, boy! We will swap."
"You are rather quick on the rein, Jäger."
"Always my nature, you see--to get the thing closed up at once, on the
nail. And so we will take a drink to close the bargain," shouted the
captain eagerly; he pulled his wig awry, and sprang up.
"Let us see if Ma has some cognac in the closet."
What sort of a trick was it the horse had?
The captain was wholly absorbed in breaking the bay to harness. The
horse turned his head to the right, and kept over on the side of the
road just as far as he could for the rein. It was impossible to find
any reason for it.
This morning he had broken off one of the trace-pins by driving against
the gate-post. Was it possible that he was afraid of a shadow? That was
an idea!--and the captain determined to try him in the moonlight that
evening.
When he came down to the stable after dinner, he saw a wonderful sight.
Great-Ola had taken the bay out of his stall, and was standing shaking
his fist against the horse's forehead.
"Well, I have tried him every way, Captain, but he wouldn't wink, not
even if I broke his skull with the back of an axe--he doesn't move!
And now see how he jumps!" He raised his hand towards the other side of
the horse's head. "But in his left eye he is as blind as a shut cellar
door."
The captain stood awhile without saying a word; the veins on his
forehead swelled up blue, and his face became as red as the collar on
his uniform coat.
"Well, then." In a rage he gave Ola a box on his ears. "Are you
standing there threatening the horse, you dog?"
When Ola was feeding the horse at night, the captain went into the
stall. He took the lantern and let it shine on the bay. "No use to cure
you of going into the ditch--See there, Ola, take that shilling, so
that you at all events may profit by it."
Ola's broad face lighted up with cunning. "The doctor must provide
himself with planks, for the one he got ate up three two-inch boards
while we had him."
"Look here, Ola," nodded the captain, "it is not worth while to let him
hear anything but that the bay can see with both eyes here with us."
When Great-Ola, in breaking-up time in spring, was driving a load
of wood home from the Gilje ridge, he was obliged to turn out on a
snow-drift for Dr. Rist, who was coming in a sleigh from the north.
"Driving with the bay, I see. Has the captain got him so that he's all
right? Does he cling just as hard to the side of the road?"
"No, of course not. The captain was the man to make that all right. He
is no more one-sided now than I am."
"As if I was going to believe that, you liar," mumbled the doctor,
while he whipped his horse and drove on.
_Chapter V_
The captain was in a dreadful humor; the doors were banging the whole
forenoon.
At dinner time there was a sultry breathing spell, during which Jörgen
and Thea sat with their eyes on their plates, extremely cautious not to
give any occasion for an explosion.
The fruit of Jörgen's best exertions to keep himself unnoticed was
nevertheless, as usual, less happy. During the soup he accidentally
made a loud noise in eating with his spoon which led to a thundering
"Don't slobber like a hog, boy."
After dinner the captain all at once felt the necessity of completing
certain computations on a chart and surveying matter that had been left
since the autumn.
And now it was not advisable to come too near the office! He had
an almost Indian quickness of hearing for the least noise, and was
absolutely wild when he was disturbed.
It became quiet, a dead calm over the whole house. The spinning-wheel
alone could be heard humming in the sitting-room, and they went gently
through the doors below, in genuine terror when in spite of all they
creaked or some one happened to let the trap-door into the cellar fall
or make the porch door rattle.
How could that foolish Torbjörg hit upon scouring the stairs now? When
she hurriedly retreated with her sand and pail, her open mouth and
staring eyes showed plainly that she did not comprehend the peculiar
inward connection between her scouring and the captain who was sitting
safely up there in his office: it was enough that he would fall at once
like a tempest down from the upper story.
Now there was a call from up there.
He came out from the office with his drawing-pen in his mouth:
What had become of the old blue portfolio of drawings? It had been
lying on the table in the hall upstairs--
Ma must go up, and Thea and Jörgen with her, to be questioned.
There--there on the table--there! it had been lying for five months!
Was it the intention to make him entirely miserable with all this
putting in order and cleaning?
"But dear, dear Jäger, we shall find it, if you will only have a little
patience--if we only look for it."
And there was a search round about everywhere; even in the garret,
under old window-panes, and among tables, reels, chests, and old
trumpery they ransacked. In his anxious zeal, Jörgen stood on his head,
digging deep down into a barrel, when Ma at length sagaciously turned
the investigation into the office again. "On top of the cabinet in the
office there is a large blue portfolio, but you have looked there, of
course."
"There? I--I should like to know who has presumed to--"
He vanished into the office again.
Yes, there it lay.
He flung down his ruling-pen; he really was not in a mood to work any
longer! He sat looking gloomily out before him with his elbows leaning
against his writing-desk. "It is your fault I say, Ma!--or was it
possibly I who had the smart idea of sending her to Ryfylke?" He struck
the desk. "It is blood money--blood money, I say! If it is to go on in
this way, what shall we have to get Jörgen on with?--Huf, it goes to my
head so--eighteen dollars actually thrown into the brook."
"She must have a Sunday dress; Thinka has now worn the clothes she
brought from home over a year and a half."
"Even new laced cloth shoes from Stavanger. Yes, indeed, not less than
from Stavanger--it is put down so--" he snatched the bill from the
desk--"and a patent leather belt, and for half-soling and mending shoes
two dollars and a quarter--and then sewing things! I never heard that a
young girl in a house bought sewing things--and postage a dollar and a
half--it is wholly incredible."
"For the year and a half, you must remember, Jäger, fifteen cents for
each letter."
"A miserly judge, I say, who does not even pay for the letters which go
from the office! Now, why did she write last when she had just before
sent messages in the letter from your sister-in-law? But there it comes
with a vengeance--four and a half yards of silk ribbon! Why didn't she
make it ten, twenty yards--as long as from here to Ryfylke? Then she
might have broken her father at once; for I see what it leads to."
"Remember they go on visits and to parties at the sheriffs, the
minister's, and the solicitor's, very often; we must let her go
decently dressed."
"Oh, I never heard before that daughters must cost money. It is a
brand-new rule you have hit upon; and what is it coming to?"
"He who will not sow, Jäger, shall not reap."
"Yes, don't you think it looks like a fine harvest--this country Adonis
there in the office, who casts sheep's eyes at her--a poor clerk
who does not have to pass an examination! But he is so quick at the
partition of inheritances, ha, ha."
Ma seemed to be a little overcome, and gazed before her hopelessly.
"Ye-es, Thinka wrote that; he is so quick in the partition of
inheritances, he is! Don't you think that was rather a nice
introduction by her for him?" He hummed. "It is clear as mud that she
is taken with him; otherwise your sister-in-law would not have written
about it as she did."
"Thinka has a gentle nature," came the answer somewhat slowly and
thoughtfully, "and is certainly so easily hoodwinked, poor thing, warm
and susceptible as she is; but still she has now seen enough of the
world about her!"
"Yes, the world does not move in verse! As Lieutenant Bausback said
when he paid his debts with old Mother Stenberg; she was exactly three
and a half times as old as he when they were married."
"She has always been pliable--we may hope that she is amenable to a
word from her parents. I will write and represent to her the prospects."
"The prospects! Don't meddle with that, Ma! Marriages don't grow on
trees. Or what kind of a match do you think Thinka can make up here?
When I am old and retired on a pension, it is a nice lookout with all
our daughters on our hands! Don't let us be mad with pride, Ma, stark
mad! That runs in your blood and that of all the Zittows."
Ma's lips stiffened a little and her eyes looked keenly black; but it
was over in a moment. "I think that after all we might economize on
pork and butter here in the house; it is not half so salt as it is used
in many places for servants, and then, when the pigs--only the hams, I
mean--can go with the load to the city, then we can very likely find
some way to get the money in again. Otherwise, I should be entirely
disheartened. But if we are to send the money, I think you ought to
send it to the post-office at once, Jäger. They ought not to see
anything but that you pay cash down."
The captain rose and puffed. "Ten and five are fifteen--and three are
eighteen." He counted the money out of a drawer in his desk. "We shall
never see the money again. Where are the scissors, the scissors, I say?"
He began to cut the envelope for the money letter out of an old gray
wrapper of an official letter, which he turned.
"Your coat and comforter are lying here, by the stove," said Ma, when
she came in again.
"There. Put the sealing-wax and seal in the inside pocket, so that I
shall not forget them; otherwise I must pay for sealing."
It was as if the captain's bad humor had been swept away when he
came back hastily from the post-office. He had found a letter from
Inger-Johanna, and immediately began to peep into it; but it became too
dark.
His coat was off in a trice, and, with his hat still on, he began
eagerly to read by the newly lighted candle.
"Ma! Ma! Tell Ma to come in at once--and another candle!"
He could not see any more, as the candle made a halo of obscurity, and
they had to wait till the wick burned up again.
Ma came in, turning down her sleeves after the baking.
"Now you shall hear," he said.
That such a ball cannot last longer! Aunt would like to be one of the
first to leave, so during the cotillion I sit in constant anxiety lest
she shall order the sleigh. Then I am examined; but then, it is now no
longer as it was the first two or three times we drove home, when I
chattered and blabbed out every possible thing, turned my soul and all
my feelings inside out as a pocket into aunt's bosom.
Yesterday I was at my seventh, and am already engaged way into the
ninth; which still will not be my last, I hope, this winter (I led
five times). Yesterday, also, I happily escaped Lieutenant Mein, the
one with Jörgen's bridle in his mouth, who has begun to want to make
sure of me for the cotillion, as he says. He sits and stands in the
companies at home at aunt's (which is all he does, as there is not a
word in his mouth), and only looks and glowers at me.
Well, you should see my dancing cards! I think I have led a third
part of all the dances this winter. Aunt has made me a present of a
sash buckle which is beautiful, and, with all the dark yellow stones,
improves the dress wonderfully. Aunt has taste; still we never agree
when I dress. Old Aunt Alette was up here yesterday, and I got her on
my side. So I was relieved from having earrings dangling about my ears;
they felt as if two bits of a bridle rein were hanging behind me, and
then I must be allowed to have sleeves wide enough to move my arm if I
am not to feel like a wooden doll.
You must know that I have grown three inches since I left home. But
never in my life have I really known what it is to exist, I believe,
till this winter. When I shut my eyes, it is as if I can see in a
dream a whole series of balls, with chandeliers under which music is
floating, and I am dancing, and am led through the throng, which seems
to make way for me.
I understand how Aunt Eleonore must have felt, she who was so
beautiful, and whom they say I resemble so; she died after a ball, Aunt
Alette says; it must have been of joy. There is nothing like dancing;
nothing like seeing them competing for engagements, kneeling, as it
were, with their eyes, and then becoming confused when I answer them in
the way they don't expect.
And how many times do you really think now I have heard that I have
such wonderful black hair, such wonderful firm eyes, such a superb
bearing; how many times do you think it has been said in the most
delicate manner and in the crudest? Aunt has also begun to admire;
I could wish that the whole winter, my whole life (so long as I am
beautiful, no longer), were one single ball, like the Polish count who
drove over sugar.
And then I have always such a desire to die after every time, when I am
lying and thinking of it, and, as it were, hear the music in my ears,
until I come to think of the next one.
For that I am going to have a new dress, light yellow with black;
that and white are most becoming to me, aunt says, and then again,
new yellow silk shoes, buttoned up to the ankles; aunt says that my
high instep betrays race, and that I feel I have; truly, I don't mind
speaking right out what I think; and it is so amusing to see people
open their eyes and wonder what sort of a person I am.
I really begin to suspect that several of our gentlemen have never
seen a living pig, or a duck, or a colt (which is the prettiest thing
I know). They become so stupid as soon as I merely name something
from the country; it might be understood if I said it in French--_un
canard_, _un cheval_, _un cochon_, _une vache_.
Student Grip contends that of those who have been born in the city not
one in ten has ever seen a cow milked. He also provokes aunt by saying
that everything which happens in French is so much finer, and thinks
that we like to read and cry over two lovers who jump into the water
from _Pont Neuf_; but only let the same thing happen here at home, from
Vaterland's bridge, then it is vulgar; and indeed I think he is often
right. Aunt has to smile. And however much she still says he lacks in
polished manners and inborn culture, she is amused at him. And so they
are everywhere, for he is invited out every single day in the week.
He generally comes Sunday afternoons and for coffee, for then he is
sure that both aunt and I are bored, he says (yes, horribly; now, how
can he know that?), and that he is not obliged to walk on stilts, and
tell lies among the blue teacups.
And then he and aunt are amusing with a vengeance, when he speaks
freely, and aunt opposes him and takes him down. For he thinks for
himself always; that I can see when he is sitting with his head on one
side and gently stirring his spoon in his cup. It makes one smile, for
if he means No, you can see it from the top of his head long before he
says it.
He is not a little talked about in the city as one of the worst of the
Student Society in being zealous for all their wild ideas. But aunt
finds him piquant, and thinks that youth must be suffered to sow its
wild oats. On the contrary, uncle says that this kind is more ruinous
for a young man's future than the worst transgressions, since it
destroys his capacity for discipline.
What he thinks of me I should like to know. Sometimes he asks,
impertinently, "You are going to the ball this evening, I suppose, Miss
Jäger?"
But I have it out with him to the best of my ability, ask aunt for
advice about some fancy work, and yawn so comfortably, and look out of
the window just when he is most excited. I see very well it provokes
him, and the last time he asked if Miss Jäger would not abstract her
thoughts from the next ball for a moment.
Uncle is often cross at his perverseness, and contends that he is a
disagreeable person; but I don't believe he would readily let him go
from the office, since he is so capable.