Hedvig knew how to make herself respected. She and her father glared at
each other with eyes alert and claws ready, but it was rarely anything
more came of it. She had a place at the baker’s, running errands for
six _kroner_ a month, which was no small sum for a girl still at
school. Anyhow, it was practically half their rent.
Yet she was a strange little creature, not like other children, and her
confidence slipped somehow between her mother’s fingers.
Many a night the keyhole of the door to her little room still showed
a speck of light by the time the clock struck twelve, or even one.
Her mother lay anxiously listening to Egholm’s snore; there was no
saying what terrible thing might happen if he were to wake and find it
out. But Hedvig would listen to reproaches the next morning with an
unfathomable expression on her face, or smile, and shake her head. The
pocket of her dress bulged with a new novel every other day.
“You should tell your mother what it _says_ in those silly books you’re
always reading,” said Fru Egholm admonishingly.
“Oh, you’d never understand a word of it,” was all Hedvig answered.
One day she had stuck up a picture over her bed, showing a man and a
woman, tied together with a rope, flinging themselves into the water
from a bridge. A yellow half-moon shone through the tree-tops and was
reflected in the water. Hedvig stood quietly, apparently indifferent,
as her mother tore it down and told in vehement words how sinful it
was to look at such things. But when her mother moved to hold it over
the lamp, the girl flung herself suddenly in front of her with wild
screams, and would not be brought to her senses until she had the
horrible picture safely put away in her workbox.
Now, who would ever believe that this was the same good little Hedvig
that the baker’s people always said a good word for, and who could
always manage to find a way when it was a case of helping others! Fuel,
for instance--Egholm did not seem to have the instinct of acquiring
fuel. But Hedvig was a little marvel in that way--though, no doubt,
it was largely through the help of Marinus in the workshop, to give
him his due. He always tucked away odd bits under his work-bench for
her. He was a kindly sort, was Marinus. And he seemed particularly
fond of Hedvig, and she of him--that is to say, at times. For it was
towards Marinus that her fickleness of humour showed itself most of
all. Sometimes when she had been in the workshop she would come back
and fall into a fit of miserable weeping; at other times she would rush
in at once the moment he tapped with his rule on the pane, whether
she wanted firewood for the kitchen or no. And as to getting any
explanation out of her--that, of course, was hopeless.
Otherwise, she was particularly good at telling things, and both her
father and her mother were often amused at her way of relating little
things that had passed.
Her father even had a speciality of his own in this respect; he loved
to hear of the money Hedvig took across the counter when she was
minding shop while her mistress was at dinner.
Then it would be Wassermann, the Customs officer, who came in and
bought best part of a tray of mixed pastries--he was such a sweet
tooth. Then perhaps there would be a message from Etatsraadens’ for
sixty butter puffs for to-morrow morning.
“Sixty!” cried her father. “And what do they cost apiece?”
“Three _øre_--but, Lord! that’s nothing to them at all. No, you should
have seen the order that came in the day they had their garden party.
_Five_ cakes with icing and marzipan.”
“Why, the bakers must be making a fortune.”
“They’ve made it already. Mistress bought a new hat the other day.”
“What was on it?” asked her mother. But her father leaned back with
closed eyes, feeling as if his own thirst were assuaged for the moment
by the flow of money Hedvig dipped her fingers in.
He was feverish, and needed something cooling. Here he was in the
throes of his invention, and could not get it out.
Not a step nearer. No boat, nothing. And it was nearly autumn now. The
trees stood there with their round juicy fruits. But, in his mind,
it was all flowers. Was there anyone in all Knarreby so poor as the
Egholms? Unless it were Bisserup, the brushmaker. And yet Egholm had
spared no pains. He had tried Etatsraaden, tried Bro, the grocer,
Rothe, the ironfounder; practically speaking, everyone of means in the
place. He had also, by the way, tried those without means. Altogether,
he had not passed by many an open ear without shouting into it
something about Egholm’s fore-and-aft turbine. Rothe had promised to
make the castings for him, but that was all.
He looked at Hedvig. She stood up, reaching with her thin, girlish arms
for the parcel with her white apron in, up on the dresser. Off to her
work. Off to all that money again.
“Wait a minute,” he said. There was a slight pause then, before he
could stammer out his proposal--that they should all kneel down and
pray to God. He did not know why, but it must be now, just at this
moment, he said.
This was by no means a new and unheard-of thing; on the contrary, it
had been known as far back as Hedvig could remember.
“It’ll keep till this evening, won’t it?” she said. “I shall be late if
I stay behind now.”
“‘Seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness....’”
“Ha!” A single sound, like the scream of a cockerel, escaped from
Hedvig. It was the first time she had openly derided her father’s
godliness. She regretted it bitterly next moment. True, the door out
to the alley-way was open, just at her left, but what was the good of
escaping herself when her mother was left behind to face what would
come? She knew what it was to come home in high spirits from her work,
and find her mother weeping, perhaps bruised into the bargain. She had
no wish to experience that again.
The tears were gathering already; something was choking her.
Egholm set his hands on the arms of his chair, to spring up and dash
out into the kitchen, but his anger seemed to snap in the middle.
In a sudden glimpse of vision he saw Hedvig in a new light. The slip of
a girl, whose naughtinesses he had been at such pains to weed out, was
no longer a slip of a girl and merely naughty--she was a _sinner_.
Every line of her figure, every feature in her face spoke blasphemy.
She stood there with the challenge of an idol.
With a strangely sweet horror her father noted all: her guilty mouth,
half-open, with lips pale and narrow, yet fresh, and teeth white as
almonds, whence issued that hell-born defiance. Her blood must be evil
as smoking brimstone.
Egholm sank back powerless in his chair.
But a moment later a new feeling came over him. How great a thing would
it be to bring this child of sin to God, with bowed head and folded
hands. “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
than of the ninety and nine which need no repentance.” So the Scripture
said. Hedvig would be a heavenly subject for conversion.
And there could be no doubt but that God would appreciate the efforts
of the one who had borne the trial of that conversion.
Hedvig stood with her back to him, slightly stooping, as if awaiting
the blow. She started when her father came out and laid his hand on her
shoulder instead.
The conversion process appeared strangely easy; yes, she should always
find something to say to the bakers by way of excuse. She set to work
at once pulling the chairs aside to make room.
Her father looked crestfallen and unsatisfied. He had been prepared for
a struggle--but this was _too_ easy.
Still, he had something in reserve. Little Emanuel, whose
inconsiderable length of days might serve as warrant for his innocence,
was set on a pillow in the middle of the floor.
“Put something under your knees, Hedvig dear,” said her mother.
“No need of that,” said Egholm, thumping his own on the floor with
unnecessary force.
“Oh, great and merciful God....”
“You’ve got your hat on, dear,” said Fru Egholm mildly.
He sent her a wrathful glance, but laid aside his hat with much dignity.
“Almighty God, Lord of Heaven and Earth....”
Egholm’s prayer began as a sonorous commonplace, an echo from the halls
of the Brethren of St. John. But gradually, as his subject grew on him,
his own individual religious view for the time being showed through.
It was to God as the Owner of great possessions that he prayed.
If any had asked him who was the greatest inventor in the world, he
would have confessed, with a pious bend of the head, that it was one
of the least of God’s servants, an unworthy creature by the name of
Egholm. But at the thought that God _owned_ the fields, the woods, and
the cities--the lands and the seas, Egholm, who had never owned more
than the poor clothes he wore and a trifle of old furniture, was moved
to prostrate himself before that mighty power.
It distressed him, however, that God should suffer those possessions
of His to be put to ill use, in that He allowed them to fall into
the wrong hands. It was by no means altogether selfishness that led
him, Egholm, here to point out himself as one who would be a true and
grateful steward of even the largest and most troublesome estate.
“Am I not Thy son, art Thou not my Father, whose will it is that all
should be well with me?”
Hedvig heard but little of her father’s words: her eyes were following
the hands of the clock; it was jerking by tiny stages on towards
twelve. There it stopped, and seemed to linger for a moment, as if
inviting the figure to join it on its way; then on again, irrevocably
on and on. She clenched her teeth in impotent fury. Then suddenly a new
note was touched in her father’s prayer--something which made her all
attention.
He had commenced, quite advisedly, with the practical human tactics of
praising those qualities in the Lord which he himself wished to call
forth towards himself.
“Thy goodness is without end and beyond all measure. So great is Thy
love to us poor children of men, that Thou hearest every prayer we
offer up to Thee, and grantest it. It is written: ‘Ask, and thou shalt
receive!’ So great is Thy loving-kindness unto us, that Thou wouldst
not have us suffer more, and therefore sayest, let there be an end.
Behold, Egholm Thy servant groaneth under the weight of poverty; Thou
seest, and it is enough; Thou sayest the word, and lo, Thy servant
cometh into riches and happiness....”
The words seemed to have a sort of hypnotic power; for a moment,
Hedvig quivered with hope that it might really come to pass. Then she
remembered how often she had heard the same thing; how many times she
had been forced to kneel thus on aching knees in prayer for the same,
but to no avail. From the time she was first able to speak, her tongue
had praised the Lord. Now, it revolted her; something within her seemed
to rise in protest; she felt that she _hated_ God.
Never for a moment did she doubt His existence; on the contrary, she
seemed to see His face. But it was a face hard and cold as stone, with
eyes looking absently out. The ardent prayers of men were powerless to
affect Him.
She began mumbling an oath every time her father found a new form for
his praise.
It was otherwise with Egholm himself. He felt stronger and stronger as
he went on; and at sight of Hedvig’s lips moving, he burst into tears,
and found courage to speak out without reserve.
For it was a curious fact that more courage was needed to ask for
little things. It was a simple matter enough to pray for wealth and
happiness in general, but to-day he managed to get out the matter that
really troubled him.
“Dear, good Lord, grant me--or only _lend_ me--one hundred _kroner_;
even fifty would do. You know what it’s for--that boat, the green boat
of Ulrik’s. Not his new one, but the old. You know, dear Lord, I want
it for my steam-turbine. And I’ve come to a dead stop now, and can’t
move a step if you won’t lend me a miserable fifty _kroner_....”
His voice had altered now to a wheedling tone, with a marked city
accent. He made a sort of half scrape-and-bow, and finished off.
“A--far....” prattled Emanuel.
It was Egholm’s habit after a prayer to embrace his wife. He made as
if to do so now, but, to his surprise, she thrust him away with every
indication of ill-will.
“No! Don’t think you’re going to get me on to that sort of thing,
because I won’t.”
“That sort of thing!” Egholm’s voice was uncertain; he had a feeling
that his wife was, after all, somehow in relation with the heavenly
powers.
“No good having a cow that yields when it kicks over the bucket after.
The first part was all right, but if you think God’s going to help
with your silly tricks about that turbine thing--why, you’re very much
mistaken.”
“But, why not?...”
“Because it’s an abomination. Cain was the first smith, and you know
it. And the Lord hates all that hammering and smithying about at
turbines and steam carts and friction cylinders....”
“Friction couplings,” corrected Egholm gently.
“Well, I don’t care what you call them. He hates all that sort of
stuff, whatever name you give it. And you can be certain sure you’ll
get nothing out of that prayer,” she concluded, with a lofty shake of
her head.
Egholm sat down in silence, and Hedvig, seeing that he was overcome by
some incomprehensible means, hurried off in relief.
What had come to Egholm now? Was he impressed by his wife’s wisdom? Oh,
he thought her foolish beyond words.
But she had destroyed his exaltation as effectively as a knife thrust
into a balloon.
His head dropped on his breast.
Yes, it was true enough, no doubt, that God was against him in all
his plans and inventions. His prayer had been in vain, despite the
brilliant idea of bringing along Hedvig as a sacrifice.
“Well, what do you think I ought to do?” he asked weakly.
“Me! And how’s a simple creature like me to say what you should do?
You’re so clever....”
He fancied there was something behind her words, and grasped at it
eagerly.
“What d’you mean?”
Fru Egholm kept up her pretence of emptiness for some time, but her
speech was crafty as a will-o’-the-wisp, and he followed her till he
lost his foothold. Then she said:
“Write to the Brethren, and ask for your money back.”
Egholm looked up with a momentary gleam of light, but pursed up his
mouth in a grimace, and said:
“The Brethren--no. I’ve done with them for good and all.”
“All right, then, just as you please,” said she. And no more was said.
Towards evening, Egholm took his stick, and went for a walk through the
town and down along the quay.
The black gliding waters of the Belt slapped softly against the
stonework, and patted like flat hands under the tarred beams. He went
right out to the point, where some boys were fishing with lines, and
calling to one another in their singing dialect, as often as they
fancied a bite.
A big Norwegian timber ship with a heavy deck-load lay in the harbour,
and all the fishing-boats of Knarreby were gathered along the side of
the quay.
The background was dominated by the church, the Custom House, and
Vang’s hotel. To the west, little fisher huts set all up a steep slope,
that rose farther on to the great beeches of Kongeskoven. Knarreby
itself was on an elevation; the ground line of St. Nicholas Church was
level with the roof of the Custom House. From where he stood, Egholm
could see two gravestones showing white in the churchyard.
Loud voices could be heard from the terrace of Vang’s hotel; three
gentlemen had just come out, and were sniffing and wiping their
foreheads with handkerchiefs. Evidently, they had been dining. Somebody
gave an order to a waiter, with a heavy slap on the back. There was a
certain noisiness apparent.
Egholm pricked up his ears--that was Rothe’s voice and no other.
Ah--and now he recognised the other two: the warlike editor and Vang
with a silk skull-cap.
Here were three men who, he felt sure, never bowed the knee to God. And
yet they seemed to enjoy themselves.
How could it be?
That fellow Rothe, for instance, the ironfounder. He was said to have
started at the lowest rung, as a blacksmith’s hand, eighteen years ago.
Now, he owned the whole of Knarreby ironfoundry.
A turbine boat would be a mere nothing to a man like that.
Egholm sat on the quay for a while, following the three with envious
eyes; then he strolled in towards the land with the ferrule of his
stick dragging listlessly over the stones.
There was the usual crowd of fishermen gathered about the warehouse.
They were always to be found there or over by the agent’s house. The
walls of both were worn smooth by the backs of their trousers.
“Going to have thunder?” asked Egholm, with a swinging gesture which he
fancied smacked of the sea.
They puffed at their pipes, and squinted in towards the centre, where
Peder Kvabs stood. He was the fattest and reddest-faced of them all,
and went about in his shirt-sleeves all the year round. When he said
nothing, then there was nothing to be said.
Well, after all, no need for any introduction, thought Egholm, and
came to the matter of his turbine at once. Funny thing, when you came
to think of it, that in four or five years from now every little
rowing-boat would have its turbine, and go spurting across the Belt
like a cat, dead against the wind.
“If only it don’t turn out one of them infernal machines like they use
for the Czar,” said Peder Kvabs, spitting between his teeth. The others
were roused at his words to some considerable emotion. They rubbed
themselves against the wooden wall, spat, and worked their eyebrows up
and down. One of them made strange sounds.
“Ah, well,” said Egholm, discomfited, “you wait and see.”
He walked a few paces, swinging his stick, then turned and called back
to them:
“You wait and see when it comes! I’m getting the money now--three or
four hundred _kroner_. From Odense. It’s money I was done out of under
false pretences. And I’m going to have the law of them....”
The woollen jerseys seemed to betray a seething and bubbling within.
The men could contain themselves no longer. Suddenly Peder Kvabs
hoisted his slacks, and led the whole flock hastily into the nearest
_café_. There was no need to ask should they go; all felt it was a
simple necessity.
“Yes,” said Egholm to himself. “That’s what I’ll do. They couldn’t give
it against me if I went to law.”
But he felt sorely in need of someone who would have faith in him, and
he longed for Henrik Vang’s ever-ready admiration. Might just slip up
to his room....
Fru Vang kept a quiet little boarding-house for a few old bachelors who
had taken the best rooms of the house. She and Vang himself occupied
separate attics.
Vang was in bed, with half an inch of reddish stubble on his chin, and
the hair on his forehead clammy with feverish sweat.
“Why, what’s this?” cried Egholm, aghast. “Are you ill? And I’d never
heard a word.... A great strong fellow like you! What’s the matter?”
“Sit down a minute,” said Vang faintly. “We can shift this here. Or
give it to Diana ... there you are.”
He set a plate down on the floor, and wiped the seat of a chair with
his bare arm.
“I’ve worked it out,” said Egholm, without preface. “The boiler must be
vertical. With the first experimental boat, of course, it’s more than
ever important to save space. Can’t make out why I didn’t hit on that
before.”
There were half a score of other things he had “worked out.”
Vang listened attentively, wrinkling up his forehead and gazing
ceilingwards, as if something were passing far above his head.
Egholm felt comfortable now, and in a burst of geniality exclaimed:
“Here, Vang, you’d better let me have a look at you. I’m something of a
doctor--natural healer, you know. I was patching up Madam Hermansen’s
leg the other day. Have you seen a doctor at all? What did he say?”
“No, I haven’t,” said Vang, looking away.
“All the better; nothing to distract my instinctive powers. Where’s the
pain?”
“Oh, you know all the time,” said Vang piteously, laying one hand on
Egholm’s arm. “Don’t go teasing me now, there’s a good fellow.”
Egholm rose to his feet in surprise; his imagination was weaving
intricate tangles in a moment.
“Is it--is it.... No, I’ve no idea--really, I haven’t.”
Vang pouted like a boy, and after a little hesitation explained that
his wife had a habit now and again--more and more frequently of
late--of taking away his trousers. He had been lying here now for four
days, with no trousers to put on.
“Oh, don’t sit there grinning just like all the rest of them!”
“I’m not, indeed. So she takes away your trousers? First-rate idea, you
know, really. She’s one of my sort. But, look here, you know, we must
be able to borrow a pair from somewhere. I’ve only these myself, more’s
the pity. But we might take it in turns....”
“There’s only one man in the place whose trousers fit me. And he won’t.
Oh, the beast! I sent down to ask him. He knows very well what’s the
trouble. It’s Rothe.”
There was a sound of short, rapid steps outside. Vang listened, waved
one arm as if with a baton to bid the orchestra cease, and fell back,
looking very ill indeed. There was a knock, and Fru Vang entered. She
was a dark, thin, sour-looking woman with pale cheeks and a burnt
fringe.
Vang sat up hastily and made the introduction with an ease of manner
acquired from habitual attendance at ballrooms, then lay back and
resumed his invalid air.
“I’ve sewed that button on,” said Fru Vang, laying something on the
bed. “Don’t you think you might try to get up now?”
She tripped back and forth about her husband’s bed, settled his
pillows, and pulled the sheet straight. Her skirts were shorter than
was usual, and her patent shoes had pointed toes and very high heels.
The legs were undoubtedly the legs of a waitress, but the rest of her
was unimpeachable. Save, perhaps, for the fringe.... Yes, the legs and
the fringe....
Egholm left the pair to themselves and hurried home. He had gained
something at least, in that his gloomy thoughts were dispersed for the
time being. Again and again he stopped, shook his head, and snorted
with laughter, at the recollection of huge Vang’s helpless expression.
After all, there was no sense in taking things too seriously. Most of
life was only fooling at the best. He would write to the Brethren, yes;
but he would not be a fool and insist on his rights; much better to go
warily, and beg their assistance in his extremity. It was one of the
rules of the community to help any brother in distress.
Fru Egholm had the pleasure of her husband’s company till late that
night. She looked to her work, and he sat there as in the old days,
busy with pen and ink and quantities of paper. But he was not angry
now; he hummed and chuckled in a self-satisfied way. At one o’clock he
began to read his petition aloud.
The letter ought to be sent off at once, wherefore he started off
himself to the railway station, and Fru Egholm was for once the first
to retire. She was asleep when he returned, but woke shortly after, and
was puzzled a good deal by a curious sniffling sound that seemed to
come from his pillow. Then the bed shook, and all at once she realised
that he was laughing!
Ah, well, those who laugh at night may come to weep by day, she thought
to herself, with some irritation.
Egholm gabbled away for some time about the turbine, about his letter
to the Brethren, and about Vang, the trouserless, and his wife.
His wife.... Ah, she was a devil! A cold air seemed to breathe from
her--though she might well have exhaled overmuch warmth in earlier
days. He remembered her mechanical smile and her soft, gentle
ministrations about her husband’s bedside. False, false from top to toe.
One might almost be tempted to say that there was but one thing genuine
about her--her false teeth! Egholm ducked down in bed again at the
thought, his lips opening and closing stickily.