Half an hour later the commissioner sat in the little company's
sailboat with his own dory in tow, he was already installed in the
position of guide to the two ladies, who had for their health sought
a resort for the summer on Fish Skerry and would consequently be
his neighbors. The conversation ran agreeably between the three new
acquaintances with a somewhat precipitate ardor to compete and show
their readiness and best side which is called forth in all who meet for
the first time. The one who made the least effort was the elderly lady,
who had introduced herself as mother of the young beauty. She seemed to
have reached a perfect harmony and resignation, worn off all corners
and was living in her memories and semi-indifferently regarding what
was going on around her, expecting nothing from others, prepared for
everything that life could offer her of good or ill and charming with
her even mild disposition.
An affinity had already arisen between the young man and the young
woman, and she seemed to enjoy receiving, and he, who had so long
waited to give, felt his powers growing now that the long-accumulated
surplus had found an outlet. And he gave for half an hour with lavish
hand from all he had stored of information that could be of interest
to them who were unacquainted with the conditions which would surround
them for awhile. He delineated all the resources of the skerry and its
deficiencies, depicted the life very alluringly as it at this moment
appeared to him to become, now when he was no longer alone. And the
young woman, who had never seen the skerry, received her first actual
impression of the same from his description. In imagination she saw
the red cottage where she was going to live with her mother, so neat
and cosy just as he wished that she would see it in order to feel at
home and tarry there. While he spoke it seemed to him as though he
received in return something good and strong, as though he heard new
thoughts, new points of view spoken by her lips which stood half open,
not as though to swallow what he reached her, but as though they spoke
themselves, and when her two big, faithful eyes looked admiringly
and surprisedly up to him he believed that all he said was true and
felt with rising esteem for himself new powers awakened, and old ones
growing in strength and tenacity. He felt so really thankful when the
boat touched land, just as after having received benefices when in
need, that he involuntarily thanked them heartily as he helped the
ladies out of the boat and carried their heavy valises on shore.
The young girl returned the politeness with "not at all," but as though
out of her treasures she had really given a trifle compared with what
she had in reserve.
When the commissioner had escorted the ladies to their new home which
turned out to be Oman's cottage, the young girl broke out into a flow
of rapture, being still under the influence of Borg's enchanting
description. The dilapidated house had something unusually picturesque
in its exterior, for there was not a single straight line. Storms, salt
water, frost and rain had destroyed every straight outline, and since
the mortar had fallen from the chimney it looked like a big tufa. Still
more agreeably surprising was the really homelike interior with its
old-fashioned comfort. The two rooms were located one on each side of
the hall, with a kitchen between them at the end; the best room was
spacious, with dark brown paper, which from smoke and age had assumed
a pleasing, quiet, even brown tone with which every color harmonized.
The low ceiling, which left no vacant space to be peopled by fancies,
showed the beams on which rested the attic floor. Two small windows,
with panes about half a foot square discolored by age, allowed a view
of the harbor and the sea, and the mass of light from outside was
pleasantly subdued by the white lace curtains which protected against
glances from outside without shutting out the daylight, and hung like
light summer clouds down over balsam and geraniums in English faience
mugs with Queen Victoria and Lord Nelson in yellow and green. The
furniture comprising a big white folding table, a Gustavian bedstead
on which were piled numerous eiderdown beds, a white painted wooden
sofa, a clock of Mora make that struck the hours, a bureau of birch
with its mirror frame veneered with the root of the alder, draped with
a bridal veil and loaded with porcelain knickknacks. On the bureau
stood a mounted parrot under a glass case, and on the wall hung colored
lithographic pictures from the Old Testament, among which the two
over the bed seemed to have been placed with questionable purpose,
one representing Samson and Delilah in a very unveiled delineation,
the other was Joseph and Potiphar's wife. In one corner was an open
fireplace which occupied considerable space and would have been
dreadful had not the black gap been covered by a white draw curtain.
It was homelike, idyllic and cleanly.
The other chamber was like the first, but had two beds and a commode;
the floor was covered with a rag carpet which with its variegated
colors formed an album of memories, from grandfather's jacket,
grandmother's blouse, mother's cotton gown and father's pilot uniform.
There were the red garters of the girls and the yellow gallows of the
land-wehr boys, blue bathing suits of the summer guests, beaver and
corduroy, cotton and baize, wool and crash, from all fashions and
wardrobes, poor men's and rich men's.
In this room stood a big white cupboard with fancy paintings on the
door panels, framed in ivy, wreaths painted with mosaic bronze,
wonderful small landscapes with dark blue coves, banks of rushes and
sailboats, trees of unknown species, from paradise or the carboniferous
age, turbulent seas with waves straight as furrows in a potato field,
a lighthouse like a column on a rocky ledge, everything as naïve as
a child's simple comprehension of rich nature's infinite variety of
shapes and colors, which only the highly trained eye can discern.
In all this old-fashioned simplicity lay the essential part of the cure
for a tired brain, which would seek rest in the past. The worn movement
of the watch would lay unwound awhile and let the spring be relieved
of tension to regain its spent powers. The association with the lower
classes which did not entice to battle for the morsel of power, but
themselves involuntarily every day and hour reminded those of the upper
class of their dearly earned position, would diminish the stimulus
and quiet those desirous of power by the thought that there already
existed passed by periods.
The commissioner had already prepared the minds of the visitors to
see and know all this, and neither of the ladies tired of expressing
their satisfaction with the new quarters and were so occupied by
investigating the location that they did not observe that their guide
had retreated to leave them undisturbed.
* * * * *
The commissioner sat at his window on this Sunday afternoon and watched
the two ladies put things in order down in their cottage. When he
followed with his eyes their soft, but irregular movements, it was to
him as though he heard music. The same modulations that a series of
harmonizing tones develop on the ear drum and communicate to the nerve
system, the same mild vibrations were now produced through the eye, and
rang through the white strings which stretched from the cranium shell
out over the sounding board of the chest and transmitted the vibrations
through the foundation of his soul. A feeling of general pleasure
streamed through his being, when he saw these women's hands moving in
waving lines, as they picked trifles from their trunks and laid them on
the table and chairs, the rising and sinking of the hips and shoulders
imperceptible to the untrained eye, but still so elastic. And when the
young woman passed through the room, there arose no straight line, no
corners or edges when she turned, no angles when she bent over.
He was perfectly captivated in regarding this, so that for a moment he
did not notice the noise in the garret and the creaking of the stairs
and the raising of latches.
He was deeply occupied regarding the young lady whose exterior seemed
to him perfectly beautiful except in one point, which deficiency he
would try and accustom his eyes not to see. Her chin was a few lines
too big and indicated a lower jaw unnecessarily developed in one who
had ceased to catch, hold and tear uncooked meat, and when he saw it in
profile he could picture the coming witch physiognomy, when the time
came that the old woman's teeth loosened, the lips sunk and formed an
obtuse angle and the nose dropped down over the prominent chin. But he
must overcome this reminder of a beast of prey, and he pursued her face
with his glance and reshaped it in his fancy, forced his eyes when they
were fixed upon her face to see it in its entirety.
Now he heard footsteps and shouts down on the hill, and in a wild
rage Oman's wife appeared with a swarm of women, who were carrying in
triumph the rescued net down to the beach.
He instantly felt his authority infringed on, and taking his hat
went down to the surveyor to demand his help as he was in the Crown's
service and in duty bound to assist him.
In the room sat the custom house man at the coffee table, and as usual,
when Vestman was out fishing, he had his arm around the waist of his
sister-in-law. At the entrance of the commissioner he dropped his hold
and under influence of the fear of being discovered he showed a greater
officiousness than he otherwise would have done. He put on his uniform
cap and went out and in a hasty desire to be a just man he stormed
against the women and caught hold of the net.
"Damned old women, don't you know it is penitentiary to break the
Crown's lock and seal!"
The women answered in a chorus of imputations, which alluded to both
the commissioner and surveyor, the principal ones being that they did
not care and that the devil might take the Crown's lock and seal, and
that both gentlemen were of such characters that they could be put in
penitentiary at any time.
Whereupon the surveyor became enraged and cried to a subordinate to
bring the sheriff.
At the word sheriff the people gathered, crawled out of every hole and
corner like ants, when one scratches in an ant-hill.
The people seemed ready at once to take part with the women,
threatening words were uttered. The commissioner found it time for
him to interfere to avoid coming under a subordinate's protection.
Therefore he went up to the crowd and asked what they wanted.
But he received no answer, and turning to the women he spoke to them in
a polite but stern manner, saying:
"As I before informed you, the Reichstag or your own elected
representatives decided for the sake of your children and descendants
that the fishing must be protected through prohibiting the use of such
implements as spoil it without bringing you any advantage, and when you
have had three years to wear out your old nets, but are still making
new ones against the law, I have in the name of the Crown been forced
to confiscate the unlawful implements. Nevertheless and in spite of
the statute law you have broken the Crown's lock and seal, which can
be punished with penitentiary. Still I will use clemency instead of
justice if you comply and obey, therefore I ask you for the last time,
if you will willingly give back the nets."
To this the women answered with new shriek and a new shower of epithets.
"Well," finished the commissioner, "as I am not a policeman, and you
are the multitude, I beg the custom house surveyor to send for the
sheriff and his assistants and at the same time I will solicit an
order from the provincial governor to arrest Oman's wife."
As he spoke the last word, he felt two soft, warm hands grasp his right
hand, and two big childish eyes looked into his, while a falling voice
like that of a mother who begged for the life of her child, said:
"In the name of Heaven have compassion on a poor unhappy woman and
don't do her any ill;" it was the supplication of the young girl who
had at the beginning of the scene come out of the cottage.
The commissioner would free himself and turned away from the big eyes,
whose glance he could not endure, but he felt his hand clasped harder
and finally pressed against a soft bosom, heard words in melting tones,
and, completely vanquished, he whispered to the beauty, "Let me go and
I will drop the whole affair."
The girl loosened her hold, and the commissioner who made his plan
in half a minute caught the surveyor by his arm and led him up to
the custom house cottage, just as though he would give him some
orders. When they reached the door, the commissioner said shortly and
decisively as though he had come to a new conclusion.
"I shall communicate with the provincial governor myself in writing.
However, I thank you for your assistance."
Thereupon he went up to his room.
When he was alone and had collected his thoughts, he was obliged to
acknowledge that his last act had been dictated by lower motives, as
his sexual impulses had prevailed to such a high degree that he had
been fooled into an act contrary to the law, for one could not speak
of pity, for people who were comparatively well off, as they were
owners of houses, fishing grounds, boats and implements valued at many
hundreds of dollars, also owners of seal rookeries and bird islets,
and, besides, paid taxes on capital and a few small places that they
rented out. The false idea that a woman had vanquished him, however,
did not hold a place in his thoughts, for he knew very well, conscious
as he was in all points that he had fallen by his own propensity or
interest to gain something from this woman. But before the throng of
people his authority was ended, his reputation shaken and hereafter
there would not be an old woman or a boy but felt themselves above him.
This, to be sure, might be immaterial for it made no difference to
him whether he had power or not over these poor wretches. What seemed
worse to him was that this woman whom he now felt he must be bound to
in order to be happy, should from the first moment inure herself in the
belief that she had gained a conquest of him and thus the equilibrium
in a future union would be disturbed.
He had had many fancies for and engagements with women before, but his
distinct consciousness of man's superiority over the intermediate form
between man and child, which is called woman, had made it impossible
for him to conceal it long, and therefore his engagements had had but
short duration. He would be loved by a woman, who should look up to
him as the stronger, he would be the adored, not the adorer, he would
be the main trunk on which the frail shoot should be grafted, but he
was born at a period which was full of spiritual pestilence, when
womankind was devastated by an epidemic mania for greatness, produced
by degenerated, sickly men, and by political pygmies, who were in need
of the masses to vote. Therefore he had been obliged to live alone.
Well he knew that in love, man must give, must let himself be fooled
and that the only way to approach a woman was on all fours. And he had
crawled at intervals, and as long as he crawled everything had gone
well, but when he had finally straightened up, that was the end of it,
always with a multitude of reproaches that he had been false, that he
had dissembled submission, that he had never loved, and so on.
Moreover, as a possessor of the highest intellectual enjoyments, and
feeling himself an exceptional being, he had not harbored a lively
desire after the lower affections, never desired to be the supporter
of a parasite, never longed to feed competitors, and his stronger self
had rebelled against being the instrument of propagation for a woman's
lineage, the rôle he had seen most men of his age play.
But now he stood in just such a dilemma again, to assimilate a woman by
allowing himself to be assimilated. To dissemble or let his exterior
express what he did not feel, he could not, but he had a great ability
for adapting himself to his associations, and comprehending other
people's way of thinking and suffering, for he had never found in
the lives of others anything but past stages that he himself had
lived through, and consequently he had only to draw from memory or
experience, letting go his hold, and diminishing the tension onward. He
had always found pleasure in woman's company as a rest and diversion on
exactly the same ground and from the same reason that keeping company
with children makes one grow younger and is a strengthening amusement,
when it is not continued too long or becomes an effort.
Now he had felt the desire growing in him to own this woman, but
notwithstanding he was an investigator and knew that man was a mammal,
it was perfectly clear to him that human love had developed as
everything else, and has taken up the elements of a higher spiritual
quality without leaving the sensual foundation. He knew precisely
how much of unsound heavenliness sneaked in with the reaction of
Christianity against the purely brutish, should be eliminated, and
he did not believe in a primness which conceded matters that could
not be shown, just as little as he admitted that the only purpose of
the conjugal state was the bedfellowship. He wished for an intimate,
complete union as to body and soul, where he as the stronger acid
would neutralize the passive base, but not as in chemistry form a new
neutral body, but, on the contrary, would leave a surplus of free acid,
which would always give the union its character and lie in readiness
to neutralize any attempt of the combination to liberate itself, for
human love was not a chemical union, but a physical and organic, which
resembled the former in certain respects without being identical
with the same. He did not expect any augmentation of his own self,
no addition to his strength, only an increase of his vitality, and
instead of searching for a support he offered himself as a support to
learn his strength and feel the enjoyment of measuring out his power,
strewing with open hands his soul without being weakened thereby or
made destitute.
During these thoughts he glanced out of the window and saw at once what
he sought, for the young girl was standing on the door stoop receiving
hand shakings from women and men, patting the children on their heads
and seemed overcome by feelings, which so much public sympathy had
aroused.
"What a peculiar sympathy for criminals," thought the commissioner;
"what a love for the mentally poor! And how well they understood each
other's propensities, which they boasted of as feelings and which they
believed to be something more than clear, mature thoughts."
The whole scene was such a tangle of absurdities, that it could not be
cleared, reflecting the chaotic in the first weak attempt at reasoning,
by these brains and spinal cords.
There stood she who had fooled him into violating the law, and received
worship like an angel. Even now if his violation of the law was from
their point of view a fine noble action, then he who gave pardon
instead of justice ought to have the thanks. The opinion of the horde
was that he should not, for they well knew that the motive for his
action was not kindness towards them, but perhaps tender feelings for a
young girl, gallantry, or the hope of winning her. Yes, but the motive
for her appearance might then be to gain the good will of the crowd, to
become beloved and popular, and receive hand shakes; the horde here
played the same role as the society of the ballroom, the promenaders on
the street or in the square. And she had fooled him through personal
contact, innocently, perhaps, possibly with calculations, probably half
of each, to commit a weak action, for which she was worshiped.
But now he must win her, therefore he pocketed all of his reflections;
he saw in an instant that through this medium he could pass his ideas
and schemes down to the horde, that through this conductor he could
move the masses and force upon them his benefactions, make them his
vassals, and that he could afterwards sit and smile like a God at their
foolishness, when they believed that they themselves had created their
happiness, but were only pregnant with his thoughts, his schemes, were
eating the dregs from his great brewage, the strong malt drink which
would never reach their lips. For what did he care if these deserted
skerries supported a half starving, superfluous population or not. What
compassion could he feel for his natural enemies who represented the
inert mass, that had lain smothering his life, impeding his growth, who
were themselves lacking in every trace of pity for each other, and who
with the fury of wild beasts persecuted their benefactors whose only
revenge was new benedictions.
It would be his great and strong enjoyment to sit unobserved, regarded
as an idiot, and guide these peoples' fates, while they believed that
they had subdued him, cut off his connections, tied his hands. He would
strike them with blindness, pervert the vision of the fools, that they
should believe themselves to be his superiors and he their servant.
While these thoughts gathered and grew into a strong decision, there
was a knock at the door, and at the Commissioner's "come in," the
surveyor appeared to deliver an invitation to tea from the ladies.
The commissioner accepted it, and sent his thanks.
After he had arranged his toilet and thought over what to say and what
not to say, he went down.
On the porch he was met by Miss Mary, who with an excessive warmth took
his hands and pressed them, saying with emotion: "Thanks for what you
did for the poor woman! It was noble, it was grand!"
"No, madam, it was neither," replied the commissioner hastily; "for on
my side it was a bad action which I regret and it was dictated only
from politeness to you."
"You malign yourself from pure politeness, and I should appreciate much
more a little sincerity," replied the lady, and at the same moment the
mother appeared.
"Oh! You are a good child," interrupted the mother in a tone of the
most immovable conviction, and bade the commissioner step into the best
room where tea was ready to serve.
To avoid engaging in an endless conversation he went in. He saw at a
glance how the plain furniture of the fisherman's cottage had been
mixed with remnants of worn city luxury. On the bureau had been placed
alabaster vases yellowish from age, photographs in the windows between
the flowers; on one side of the fireplace stood an arm chair with
figured cretonne and brass tacks, a few books on a center table round a
parlor lamp.
It was neatly arranged, but with a careful mathematical exactness,
everything symmetrical but still a little awry and askance where it
was intended to be straight. The tea set of old Saxony china with
gold edges and cherry red monograms was cracked here and there and
the teapot cover had been mended with clasps. After he had studied
the portrait of the deceased father of the family without daring to
ask what position he had held, he saw that he had been a government
official, and he understood that here was _pauvres honteux_. In further
looking around the room, he noticed a knapsack left under a table and
bearing a tag which indicated that the old lady was the widow of a
councilor of the exchequer.
At first the conversation touched the objects that presented themselves
to the eyes, and then passed on to the event of the day, coming
finally to the people. The commissioner saw at once that the ladies
were interested in the affairs of other people and lived in a morbid
uneasiness for the welfare of the lower classes. As he had observed
that his sincerity had offended and the purpose of his visit was not
to hurt their feelings by giving them his ideas, he laid to and let
himself drift. Sometimes his resentment was aroused and he would
venture a little remark or information, but he felt at once as though
soft hands were placed on his mouth, and round arms wound about his
neck, so that the words were smothered. Besides, the views here were
so rooted, everything so fixed, and all questions settled, that they
only smiled in a friendly way, with mild forbearings, when they read
a doubt in him regarding their axioms. Then the conversation turned
to the moral and spiritual condition of the population, and here the
commissioner perfectly agreed with them. He delineated with fervor the
rudeness of the forenoon with its drunkenness and fray, pitying the
want of enlightenment, and finally narrating scenes which betrayed
complete paganism. He spoke of how the fishermen cast offerings on
stones, loaded their guns with lead from church windows, how they
talked about Thor's bucks when it thundered, and of Oden's wild hunt
when the gray geese came in the spring, and how those on the inner
islands let the magpies destroy the chickens for the people did not
dare to tear down the nests from fear of unknown avengers.
"Yes," completed the old lady, "it isn't their fault, and if they were
not so far from the church, it would be entirely different."
Thither the commissioner's thoughts had not gone, but in an instant he
saw what a great power he would get as an ally, and developing the seed
of thought he had got in the morning from observing the divine service
on board the navy steamer, he burst out with real rapture:
"Well, but one can build a meeting house at small cost. Just think of
it, if I should address a letter to the Home Mission Institute."
The ladies embraced the subject with the greatest ardor and promised
themselves to write to that institution and some societies and
projected a fair, but recollected that here was no dancing public.
The commissioner removed all difficulties by offering to advance the
money and provide the building, which could be bought ready made at
the factory, if the ladies would only find a preacher. "Yet," added
he, "one ought to select for this place now at the beginning, one of
the stern kind, who can lay hold of the people and produce a revival
movement of the most earnest nature, for no half measures will do here."
The ladies made mild objections and recommended charitable means, but
the commissioner showed, how fear was the elementary foundation on
which to build a first education; afterwards one could come with love.
A great common interest had welded these souls together, while
they overheated themselves at the great fire of love, and worked
themselves up to an overflowing omni-benevolence towards every living
thing, pressed each other's hands and separated with blessings and
congratulations that fate had brought together three good people, who
would work unanimously for the good of humanity.
When the commissioner came out, he shook himself, as though to clear
off some dust, and felt as when he had visited a flour mill, and taken
delight in seeing all objects coated with the soft, white tone of
flour, which harmonized Iron, wood, linen and glass in one accord, and
the same feeling of subdued pleasure as in touching locks, banisters
and sacks powdered with a soft dust of flour, but had at the same
time found it hard to breathe, obliged to cough and to take out a
handkerchief.
Nevertheless it had been a pleasant evening. This imperceptible
radiation of warmth from the mother which thawed the frigid thoughts,
this atmosphere of cordiality and childishness in the young woman,
which made him grow young again, this childish belief in that which
in his youth was the naïve idea of the day to lift up that which
was cast down, to protect what was dwarfed, sick and frail, all of
which he now knew was directly against everything that could promote
humanity's happiness and increase, and which he hated from instinct,
when he saw how all strength, every burst of originality was persecuted
by the unfortunate. And now he would form an alliance with them
against himself, work to his own destruction, lower himself to their
level, dissemble feeling for the enemy, bestow the war cash on the
antagonists. The thought of the enjoyment these proofs of power would
give intoxicated him, and he turned his footsteps towards the beach
that in the solitude he might recall himself. And when he now in the
still, mild summer night wandered on the sand, where he recognized
his own footsteps from previous days, where he knew every stone and
could tell where this or that herb grew, he noticed that everything
looked differently, had assumed a new form and gave entirely different
impressions than when he had walked there the day before. A change had
occurred, something new had intervened. He could no longer evolve the
great feeling of solitude, where he had felt as though alone before
nature and humanity, for somebody stood at his side or behind him. The
isolation was abolished, and he was soldered to the little banal life,
threads had been spun round his soul, considerations began to bind
his thoughts, and the cowardly fear of harboring other thoughts than
those his friends harbored clutched him. To build happiness on a false
foundation he dared not, for if he had it all hewn even to the ridge
pole it might sometime tumble, and then the fall would be greater, the
grief deeper, and still it must come to pass if he would own her, and
that he would do with all the mighty power of a mature man. Lift her
up to him? But how to do it? Not that he could make her from woman to
man, or redeem her from the uncurable propensities her sex had given
her. Not that he could give her his own education which had taken him
thirty years to acquire, nor could he give her the same evolution he
had passed through, the experiences and the knowledge he had battled
for and won. Therefore he must sink down to her, but the thought of
this sinking tormented him as the greatest possible evil, as sinking,
going down, beginning over again, which besides was impossible. It only
remained for him to make himself double, split himself in two, create
a personality, intelligible and easy of access to her, play the duped
lover, learn to admire her inferiority, get used to a role as she liked
to have it, and so in silence live the other half of his life in secret
and to himself, sleep with one eye and keep the other open.
He had mounted the skerry without observing it. And now he saw the
lights down in the fishing village and heard wild shrieks, the cries
of jubilee over the beaten foe, who would raise their children and
their children's children from poverty, save them labor, give them
new enjoyments. Once again there awoke in him the desire to see these
savages tamed, to see these worshipers of Thor kneeling for the white
Christ, the giants falling before the pale Asas. The barbarian must
pass through Christianity as a purgatory, learn veneration for the
power of the spirit in the frail bundles of muscles, the remainder of
the wandering tribes must have their middle age before they can reach
the renaissance of thinking and revolution of action.
Here should the chapel be raised on the highest ridge of the skerry
and its little spire point upwards over the look-out and flag pole to
greet the sailors at long distance as a reminder of.... Here he stopped
and reflected. With a look of scorn on his pale face, he bent over and
picked up four gneiss scales, which he laid in a rectangle from east
to west, after having measured thirty steps in length and twenty in
breadth.
"What an excellent landmark for the sailors!" he thought as he
descended the hill and went home to bed.