They did as he wished. He showed them over the house, while Josephine
went to get some refreshment ready. From the study, which looked into
the garden, they went into the large drawing-room looking on to the
road, into the drawing-room behind that again, and from there to the
kitchen at the north side of the house, and to which there was a
separate entrance; on the same side was the larder, and a spare
bed-room out to the garden, next to the minister's study, and with a
balcony in front corresponding to the steps at the other end of the
facade. Upstairs were several bed-rooms, etc. It barely took five
minutes to show them over the house. Nothing but a few necessary
remarks on the part of the minister, and from Kallem a sneering
allusion to the minister's occupying the spare bed-room, while
Josephine was upstairs with her boy; a similar speech later on, as he
stood before a rare collection of celebrated theologians hanging round
Luther's portrait on the largest wall of the room. He refused the
refreshments Josephine offered them, said good-bye and went.
Ragni followed them about like an invisible being. As they were
going away, her long, narrow, hand whisked through the hands of her
brother- and sister-in-law like an ermine through a hole in the wall.
Her eyes glanced timidly at them like the shadow of a wing. The
minister went out to the steps with them, Josephine remaining behind at
the big window.
Kallem walked so quickly that Ragni was obliged to take a little hop at
every third step; the minister stood and looked after them. This rapid
walking increased her agitation so that, when they had got about
half-way between the beach and the minister's house, she asked him to
stop. She began to cry.
Kallem was surprised at this display of feeling so different to his
own; he was very angry. But he soon understood that she was probably
crying on account of his behaviour. He drew her up to the railing, and
leaning his back against it, said: "Have I not acted rightly?"
"You were so cruel--oh, so cruel, and not only to him and to her, but
to me too; yes, especially to me. You never looked at me, never paid
the slightest attention to my being there."
"But, my dear, it was just on your account."
"Well, then I would rather go away again! I cannot bear that!" She
threw herself in his arms.
"My dear! did you see what Josephine looked like?"
"Of course I did," answered Ragni, and her head peeped up again, her
hat falling off, and her hair tumbled. "She will kill me some day!" and
again took refuge in his arms.
"Well, well," said he, "she will not succeed in doing you any harm. But
am I not to fight your battles?"
Forth she peeped again: "Not in that way! I would never have thought
you were like that! It was so--so unrefined, Edward," and she took and
shook him by the coat-collar.
"Listen to me," said he, quietly; "what that fellow has written about
us, that is unrefined. And her silence? I thought that worse than
anything he had written."
To this she answered nothing. After a pause he heard: "I am not suited
for this."
He bent over her head; her hat had fallen off, but they neither of them
noticed it; he whispered softly through her reddish hair; she must not
give in at once, nor speak of dying or going away again. "We must take
it in a more manly way than that, don't you think so too?"
"Yes, yes." Her rough head peeped out again: "But you must remember
that now I am with you; you cannot behave quite as if you were alone."
No, he quite saw that, and stood there with a guilty conscience.
At the same time Josephine was again in the room looking on to the
road; there was only one window there, but a larger one than was usual,
and she stood leaning her head against the window-post. The minister
stood behind her. He considered it an untoward accident, his having
written that in the _Morgenblad_.
"Your brother said he had been married six years?"
Josephine turned right round. But after she had thought the matter
over, she only said: "Rubbish!" and turned to the window again. The
minister thought too that it must be a mistake. They could not have
been married before she was legally divorced.
"He was always acting a part," said he; "he took to walking on his
hands." She turned towards him again, with eyes wide open with
astonishment. "He walked right round the study on his hands," the
minister assured her. "He advised me to walk up to the altar in that
way. Well, as he even ridicules Luther, I ought certainly to be able to
endure his ridicule."
She evidently did not wish him to speak of this meeting at the present
moment; it caused her too much pain. He retired to his study, and
looked anything but pleased whilst he was filling his pipe.
Josephine had reckoned so much on meeting and living with her brother.
She would never listen to the slightest insinuation of a possibility of
things turning out differently to what she expected. Perhaps her
present suffering was wholesome for her.
Had he himself acted rightly to-day? He certainly thought he had. He
only hoped he would always be able to take things as meekly; he was
quite certain this was not the last of it.
He enjoyed his pipe and took up his sermon again; but thoughts about
Josephine would keep cropping up. He never could feel the same
confidence in their married life as others had. She was irritable at
times, and this last outbreak had been a bad one. Without doubt,
because her thoughts had been entirely taken up by the expected
visitor.
Hush!
"----Conversion is a spontaneous proceeding, conclusive forever. All
our sins are washed away; we are as pure and holy in God's sight as
Christ Himself!"