Part 20 (1/2)

Afterwards I noticed that she drew the fair girl aside to find out what I had said. I cannot say how that look of Edwarda's cheered me, after I had been going about from room to room like a sort of outcast all the evening; I felt better at once, and spoke to several people, and was entertaining. As far as I am aware, I did nothing awkward or wrong...

I was standing outside on the steps. Eva came carrying some things from one of the rooms. She saw me, came out, and touched my hands swiftly with one of hers; then she smiled and went in again. Neither of us had spoken. When I turned to go in after her, there was Edwarda in the pa.s.sage, watching me. She also said nothing. I went into the room.

”Fancy--Lieutenant Glahn amuses himself having meetings with the servants on the steps!” said Edwarda suddenly, out loud. She was standing in the doorway. Several heard what she said. She laughed, as if speaking in jest, but her face was very pale.

I made no answer to this; I only murmured:

”It was accidental; she just came out, and we met in the pa.s.sage...”

Some time pa.s.sed--an hour, perhaps. A gla.s.s was upset over a lady's dress. As soon as Edwarda saw it, she cried:

”What has happened? That was Glahn, of course.”

I had not done it: I was standing at the other end of the room when it happened. After that I drank pretty hard again, and kept near the door, to be out of the way of the dancers.

The Baron still had the ladies constantly round him. He regretted that his collections were packed away, so that he could not show them--that bunch of weed from the White Sea, the clay from Korholmerne, highly interesting stone formations from the bottom of the sea. The ladies peeped curiously at his s.h.i.+rt studs, the five-pointed coronets--they meant that he was a Baron, of course. All this time the Doctor created no sensation; even his witty oath, _Dod og Pinsel_, no longer had any effect. But when Edwarda was speaking, he was always on the spot, correcting her language, embarra.s.sing her with little shades of meaning, keeping her down with calm superiority.

She said:

”... until I go over the valley of death.”

And the Doctor asked:

”Over what?”

”The valley of death. Isn't that what it's called--the valley of death?”

”I have heard of the river of death. I presume that is what you mean.”

Later on, she talked of having something guarded like a ...

”Dragon,” put in the Doctor.

”Yes, like a dragon,” she answered.

But the Doctor said:

”You can thank me for saving you there. I am sure you were going to say Argus.”

The Baron raised his eyebrows and looked at the Doctor in surprise through his thick gla.s.ses, as if he had never heard such ridiculous things. But the Doctor paid no heed. What did he care for the Baron?

I still lurked by the door. The dancers swept through the room. I managed to start a conversation with the governess from the vicarage. We talked about the war, the state of affairs in the Crimea, the happenings in France, Napoleon as Emperor, his protection of the Turks; the young lady had read the papers that summer, and could tell me the news. At last we sat down on a sofa and went on talking.

Edwarda, pa.s.sing, stopped in front of us. Suddenly she said:

”You must forgive me, Lieutenant, for surprising you outside like that.

I will never do it again.”