Part 7 (2/2)

But it is two evenings, I thought to myself. What was she doing the first evening? And why is there less joy in her eyes now than before?

An hour pa.s.sed. The bird up in the hills was silent, the woods lay dead.

No, no, nothing wrong; all as before; she gave me her hand to say good-night, and looked at me with love in her eyes.

”To-morrow?” I said.

”No, not to-morrow,” she answered.

I did not ask her why.

”To-morrow is our party,” she said with a laugh. ”I was only going to surprise you, but you looked so miserable, I had to tell you at once. I was going to send you an invitation all on paper.”

And my heart was lightened unspeakably.

She went off, nodding farewell.

”One thing more,” said I, standing where I was. ”How long is it since you gathered up the pieces of that gla.s.s and put them away?”

”Why--a week ago, perhaps, or a fortnight. Yes, perhaps a fortnight.

But why do you ask? Well, I will tell you the truth--it was yesterday.”

Yesterday! No longer ago than yesterday she had thought of me. All was well again now.

XV

The two boats lay ready, and we stepped on board. Talking and singing.

The place, Korholmerne, lay out beyond the islands; it took a good while to row across, and on the way we talked, one party with another, from boat to boat. The Doctor wore light things, as the ladies did; I had never seen him so pleased before; he talked with the rest, instead of listening in silence. I had an idea he had been drinking a little, and so was in good humor to-day. When we landed, he craved the attention of the party for a moment, and bade us welcome. I thought to myself: This means that Edwarda has asked him to act as host.

He fell to entertaining the ladies in the most amiable manner. To Edwarda he was polite and kind, often fatherly, and pedantically instructive, as he had been so many times before. She spoke of some date or other, saying: ”I was born in '38,” and he asked, ”Eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, I suppose you mean?” And if she had answered, ”No, in nineteen hundred and thirty-eight,” he would have shown no embarra.s.sment, but only corrected her again, and said, ”I think you must be mistaken.” When I said anything myself, he listened politely and attentively, and did not ignore me.

A young girl came up to me with a greeting. I did not recognize her; I could not remember her at all, and I said a few words in surprise, and she laughed. It was one of the Dean's daughters. I had met her the day we went to the island before, and had invited her to my hut. We talked together a little.

An hour or so pa.s.sed by. I was feeling dull, and drank from the wine poured out for me, and mixed with the others, chatting with them all.

Again I made a mistake here and there: I was on doubtful ground, and could not tell at the moment how to answer any little civility; now and then I talked incoherently, or even found nothing at all to say, and this troubled me. Over by the big rock which we were using as a table sat the Doctor, gesticulating.

”Soul--what is the soul?” he was saying. The Dean's daughter had accused him of being a free-thinker--well, and should not a man think freely?

People imagined h.e.l.l as a sort of house down under the ground, with the devil as host--or rather as sovereign lord. Then he spoke of the altar picture in the chapel, a figure of the Christ, with a few Jews and Jewesses; water into wine--well and good. But Christ had a halo round His head. And what was a halo? Simply a yellow hoop fixed on three hairs.

Two of the ladies clasped their hands aghast, but the Doctor extricated himself, and said jestingly:

”Sounds horrible, doesn't it? I admit it. But if you repeat it and repeat it again to yourself seven or eight times, and then think it over a little, it soon sounds easier... Ladies, your very good health!”

And he knelt on the gra.s.s before the two ladies, and instead of taking his hat off and laying it before him he held it straight up in the air with one hand, and emptied his gla.s.s with his head bent back. I was altogether carried away by his wonderful ease of manner, and would have drunk with him myself but that his gla.s.s was empty.

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