After a cruel winter came the spring at last, offering gentle hands to
all mankind. Folk might be seen walking in the streets, hat in hand, in
gratitude and veneration towards the bright, happy face of the sun.
It was much the same with the flowers; they came forth in hosts from
out of the earth, _saw_ the sun, and bowed.
The beech, knowing its flowers were nothing to speak of, put on its
pale green silk first thing in the morning, and found no reason to be
ashamed, but the apple tree surpassed them all; it had to put on its
bridal dress with a blush.
Fru Egholm left the kitchen window open all day long. A branch from
Andreasen’s espalier, an apple branch of all things, thrust itself
up across the opening. It was almost her property, so to speak, that
apple branch. She showed Emanuel how the bees came flying up, whispered
something sweet into the ears of the little flower things, and were
given honeyed kisses in return before flying off again.
Fru Egholm did more than that for her little boy; she got Hedvig to
take him out every afternoon into the meadow near by. He came home
with a chain of dandelion stalks round his neck, and one day he even
had a dead butterfly in his clammy little fist. That day, he could
hardly speak for the wonders he had seen.
Spring came to Egholm, too. He had got his boat--the very green one he
had prayed for. Vang had procured it for him, by some means unknown.
“My dear fellow, my old and trusted friend, let me make you a present
of it. Here you are, the boat is yours, presented by a circle of
friends.”
And the pair overflowed in a transport of mutual affection.
The boiler was already in its place, and the funnel towered proudly
above, painted a fine bold red. The screw stuck out behind, and could
revolve when turned by hand. All looked well, so far.
But the turbine itself, the beating heart that was to make the thing
alive, was not yet finished.
Krogh, the old blacksmith, worked away at it till his yellow drooping
jaws shook. His tools were mediæval. What a machine drill could have
managed in an afternoon, he took a week to do. Egholm turned up his
eyes to heaven, when he saw how little had been done in twenty-four
hours, but he said nothing. The fact was, that Krogh had one quality
which rendered him more valuable than all other blacksmiths together:
he was willing to work without seeing the money first. Moreover, his
work was good when it _was_ done, and in spite of his sour looks, he
took a real interest in the project.
Egholm was so kindly and easy to get on with all that spring that his
wife was quite uneasy about him at times. All the hours he could spare
from his studio--and they, alas, were not a few--he spent down on the
beach, scraping and patching and painting his wonderful creation.
At home, he would sit dreaming in the arm-chair, so far removed from
all reality that Emanuel might sing and prattle as much as he pleased
without being stopped by a peremptory order from his father.
He was sitting thus one evening towards the end of May; both Emanuel
and Hedvig were asleep. The day had been hot, and the heat still hung
in the low-ceiled rooms. The children were tossing restlessly in their
beds. If only one dared to open a window--but no; the night air was
a thing to be careful about, while there were children in the place,
thought Fru Egholm to herself. It was late, very late, but what did
that matter, as long as there was oil enough in the lamp?
“Whatever are you sitting there thinking about?” she asked, when the
silence had lasted an eternity. There was not the slightest danger now
in such a piece of familiarity on her part. Not as he had been lately.
“Nothing,” said Egholm, drawing in his breath as if he had just
emerged from the depths of the sea. “What’s that you’re fussing about
now?”
“Wassermann’s wig. Look at it--it’s simply falling to pieces. But as
for a new one--well, you should have seen his wife’s face when I spoke
of it. And if it hadn’t been that there’s a chance they might take
Hedvig as maid there, I’d never....”
“What d’you get for a bit of work like that?”
“Well, it ought to be a _krone_, but seventy-five _øre_ I will have,
and that’s the least. Though I don’t suppose she’ll offer me more than
fifty, the stingy old wretch.”
Egholm sat silent a while, then involuntarily he lied a little. “I’ll
tell you,” he said, “what I was thinking about. You know that verse
from ‘_Adam Homo_’:
“‘What trouble’s worst? We’ve trials enough, Lord knows
If I should ask, a score of voices swift
Would tell me where _they_ found the “little rift”
Each as experience led him to suppose.
One says ’tis boredom, one, ’tis married life;
Another finds it worse _without_ a wife.
One thinks remorsefully of sins committed,
Another with regret of those omitted.
One, of all pains we’ve suffered since the Fall,
Will reckon _Money Troubles_ worst of all.’
Yes, money troubles--that’s the worst. Paludan Müller, he knew. And
he’s my favourite poet. He knew everything!”
And Egholm fell to talking pitifully of poverty, the nightmare that
had its teeth in his throat, and could not be torn away.
“But there’s more comes after,” said Anna, when he paused. “Don’t you
remember the next verse?”
“I know the whole thing off by heart. Anywhere you like to choose.”
“Well, then, you know that money troubles aren’t the worst in the
world. It’s no good losing courage like that. And we’re getting on
nicely now, really. Etatsraaden said about the rhubarb, we might....”
She put forth all her womanly arts to comfort him, but in vain. Still
she kept on--and her voice was much the same as when she was soothing
Emanuel.
Egholm let her go on; yes, they were getting on nicely now, he thought
to himself, and smiled bitterly. Oh yes, nicely, magnificently!
The globe of the lamp was stuck together with strips of newspaper.
Before the window hung a piece of faded green stuff in two tapes,
drooping down to a slack fold in the middle. At the sides were ragged,
dusty curtains, into which Anna had stuck some paper flowers.
On the walls were a couple of old engravings, an embroidered
newspaper-holder of his wife’s, and a few fretwork brackets and
photograph frames, these being Sivert’s work.
The big mirror, too, looked ridiculous, really, at that angle--it had
to be slanted forward to an excessive degree, owing to the lowness
of the room. Egholm could see himself in it, and the children’s bed
as well. Emanuel lay on the settee, but Hedvig’s bed, in the little
side room, consisted of three chairs. Her coverlet was his old uniform
cloak, and the chairs rocked at every breath she drew.
Poverty in every corner. The very pattern of the wallpaper was formed
of holes and patches of damp.
True, there were the two arm-chairs and the chest of drawers, but....
His wife was still talking away of all the good things they had to be
thankful for. Of Hedvig, coming home regularly with her good wages, and
the chance now of getting a place at ten _kroner_, at Wassermann’s. And
then Sivert, still at the glazier’s this ever so long. Surely it was a
mercy they could be proud of their children?
And soon Egholm himself would have finished that steamboat thing of
his.... Fru Egholm threw out this last by some chance, having exhausted
all other items that could reasonably be included.
Her husband started. It was what he had been thinking of all the
evening himself. But, anxious not to betray the fact, he said only:
“Yes; if I’m lucky.”
But Anna saw through him all the same. Stupid of her not to have
thought before of the one thing that was all the world to him.
“And why shouldn’t you be lucky, I should like to know? You haven’t
lost faith in your own invention?”
“It’s a curious thing,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “One moment
I believe in it, and the next I don’t. How is it possible that the
trained experts with all modern equipment at their backs--and money,
most of all--with nothing to worry about but their own calculations and
plans--how could they have missed the solution of the problem when it
seems to me as plain as the nose on your face?”
“Why, as to that, I don’t know, I’m sure. But that steam cart you made,
you know, just before Hedvig was born, that didn’t work.”
“Oh, what’s that got to do with it?” said Egholm irritably.
His wife pointed warningly towards the sleeping children. “Sh!” she
said. Then, noticing that the cloak had slipped down from Hedvig’s
legs, she hastened to tuck it up again. Egholm calmed down.
“Don’t mix up a steam cart and a turbine,” he said when she re-entered
the room. “I didn’t take any particular trouble over that steam
cart--at any rate, not enough. After all, it was only construction
work, that. But a turbine that can _reverse_--that’s an independent
invention. I’d give my heart’s blood to realise it. You know what a
friction coupling is, I suppose?”
“Do you mean the thing with the two balls, that swing round and look
like an umbrella?”
“Good heavens, no! You’re thinking of a centrifugal regulator valve.”
“Oh well, well, then....”
No, it was no use talking to her; she muddled up the simplest things
imaginable. Egholm wrung his hands and was silent.
But a little after, he looked up brightly and suggested they should go
and have a look at the machinery now, both together.
Anna shook her head. What an idea!
“Aren’t you a bit interested in my things?”
“Why, that you know I am, Egholm. But you wouldn’t ask me to go running
out now in the middle of the night. Look, it’s half-past one!”
“But you say you never can go out in the daytime.”
This was true; Anna never set foot outside the door as long as it was
light. Her dress had been ruined altogether this winter, from having
to use it for Emanuel’s bedclothes at night. And what was the use of
having rooms across a courtyard, when Andreasen’s workmen came running
to the window every time they heard the door?
“But the lamp might upset, and the house burn down and the children in
it.”
“Turn it out, then, of course. Don’t talk such a lot.”
Fru Egholm writhed; there was no persuading him any way once he had
taken a thing into his head.
Hesitatingly she took out a white knitted kerchief from a drawer. She
had almost forgotten what it was like to put on one’s things to go
out....
It was moonlight outside; the shadow of the tall workshop roof lay
coal-black over half the courtyard, leaving the remainder white as if
it had been lime-washed.
Every step she took seemed new and strange. So softly their steps fell
in the thick dust as they crossed the road.
Up in the old churchyard, every tree stood like a temple of perfume
in the quiet, soft night. And all the time, she was marvelling that
it really _was_ moonlight. She had not noticed it at home--doubtless
because the lamp was burning.
The tears came into her eyes--just such a moonlight night it had been
the time they....
And here she was walking with him, just as then.
Surely, it was enough to turn one’s head.
Here was Egholm actually taking her arm. Taking her arm!...
Great moths and small glided silently past; one of them vanished into
the hedge as if by magic.
Bats showed up here and there against the pale sky, flung about like
leaves in the wind. From the meadow came a quivering chorus of a
thousand frogs.
“It must be like this in Paradise,” she said faintly.
“Ah, wait till you can see the boat,” said her husband.
The dew on the thick grass down by the beach soaked through her boots
and stockings. Moonlight _and_ stockings wet with dew.... Oh, it was
not _just like_ that time now; it _was_ that time ... that night at
Aalborg, after the dance at the assembly rooms, where she had met the
interesting young photographer--the pale one, as they called him--and
let herself be tempted to go out for a walk in the woods after. And
Thea, her sister, who was with them, had almost pinched her arm black
and blue in her excitement. But it had to be; he was irresistible,
with his foreign-looking appearance, his silver-mounted stick, and his
smartly creaking calfskin boots.
He had not danced himself, by the way, but sat majestically apart
drinking his tea.
But how he could talk! Until one hardly knew if it was real or all a
dream....
It was light when she pulled off her soaking wet stockings and her
sodden dancing shoes.
Yes, it must be some good angel that had put back the clock of time
to-night. Here she was, walking in the woods of Aalborg with her
lover. There was the fjord, and the moon drawing a silvery path right
to her feet. Come, come!
She gazed with dimmed eyes towards the wondrous ball in the heavens,
that called up tides in the seas and in hearts; she clung trustingly to
her friend’s arm. And, glancing at him sideways, she saw that his eyes
were looking out towards it too. Yes, their glances moved together,
taking the same road out over the gliding waters of the Belt, in
through a gate of clouds, to kneel at the full moon, that is the God of
Fools.
A startled bird rose at their feet and flew, the air rushing audibly in
its feathers.
“Listen--a lark! And singing now, though it’s night!”
“A lark!” Egholm took this, too, as an omen of good fortune for his
turbine.
At the foot of the slope lay the boat, drawn up on land with props
against the sides.
He explained it all, the parts that were there and the rest that should
be added as soon as Krogh had got the turbine finished. He spoke
eagerly and disconnectedly; none but an expert could have understood
him. But Anna kept on saying:
“Yes, yes, I can understand that, of course. Ever so much better that
way, yes. And how prettily it’s painted, the boiler there. I thought it
would be just an old rusty stove. And the boat--why, it’s quite a ship
in itself.”
“Beautiful little boat, isn’t it?” said Egholm, in high good humour
now. “And I’ve caulked it all over. Take my word for it, the natives’ll
stare a bit when the day comes, and they see it racing away. Let’s sit
down and look at it a bit. Here, Anna, just here.”
They sat down, but it was wet in the tufty grass.
“We can climb up in the boat and sit there.”
Anna hesitated at first, but soon gave way. After all, everything was
topsy-turvy already; she hardly knew if she were awake or dreaming.
Egholm turned up an old bucket. “Here!” and he offered his hand like a
polite cavalier and helped her up.
The summer night was all about them. The lapping of the waves sounded
now near, now far; it was like delicate footsteps. For a little while
neither spoke.
“But--you’re not crying, Anna, dear?” He had felt her shoulders
quivering.
“We’ve been so far away from each other; strangers like,” she sniffed.
And then she broke down completely. “Anna, dear,” he had said. “Far
away from each other.... I don’t see how.... Seems to me we’ve been
seeing each other all day the same as usual.”
“Oh, but--we haven’t talked together for an hour like we are now, not
really, all the time we’ve been here.”
“Well, what should we talk about? You don’t generally take any interest
in my things. And, besides, living as we do in a hell of poverty....”
“But that’s just the reason why we ought to have helped each other. It
would have made everything easier if we had.”
“Well, I don’t know.... But, anyhow, there’s never been any difficulty
on my part, I’m sure.” Egholm spoke throughout with the same slight
touch of surprise. Really, she was getting too unreasonable.
There was nothing for it now--she must say it.
“You’ve struck me many a time in the two years we’ve been living here.”
She stopped in fright at her own words, then hastened to add: “But I
know you don’t mean any harm, of course.”
“Then why do you bother about it?” he said, in the same tone as before.
But a moment later, before she could answer, he got up, reached out as
if to swing himself out of the boat, then sat down again and shook his
head.
“Struck you?” he said plaintively. “Have I really struck you?”
He did not expect an answer, but asked the same question again, all the
same. He fumbled for her hand under her apron, and stroked it again and
again.
“Have I really struck you?”
Then he drew back his hand again, and shook his head once more.
Anna was deeply moved. The single caress seemed to her like the
sunlight and the scent of flowers that came in through the kitchen
window in the morning, before the others were awake. Her heart swelled
up within her, and her tears poured down as she put her arms round
him and begged him to forget what she had said. She lost sight of the
starting-point altogether, and behaved like a penitent sinner herself.
“Forgive me, do say you forgive me. Say you’ll forget it. Oh, don’t
make me miserable now because it slipped out like that! You’re so good,
so good....”
White banks of mist lay over the Belt, and away in the north-east the
sun was already preparing to emerge after the brief night. The larks
rose and fell, singing; the gulls called cheerily as they came tearing
down after food.
Egholm turned round several times to look back at the boat as they
walked home.
Quietly they stole into the house. Nothing had gone wrong in their
absence.
Hedvig awoke, and stared stiffly at her parents; then she yawned and
lay down again. Very soon the chairs were rocking under her again as
they should.
Egholm began undressing at once; he looked tired and peaceful. But
his wife whispered to say she would be there directly; only a few more
stitches to finish the work.
And as she sewed, she looked with a smile at the spots of red paint on
her fingers. There, on the left hand, was one that looked just like a
ring. That was where he had helped her up into the boat.
Who could sleep after a night like that?