initial commit of ebook 5052HEADmain

7 files changed, 9181 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/5052.txt b/5052.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..22ee7ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/5052.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4475 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Absalom's Hair, by Bjornstjerne Bjornson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Absalom's Hair
+
+Author: Bjornstjerne Bjornson
+
+Posting Date: August 25, 2012 [EBook #5052]
+Release Date: February, 2004
+First Posted: April 11, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABSALOM'S HAIR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ABSALOM'S HAIR
+
+BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+Harald Kaas was sixty.
+
+He had given up his free, uncriticised bachelor life; his yacht was no
+longer seen off the coast in summer; his tours to England and the south
+had ceased; nay, he was rarely to be found even at his club in
+Christiania. His gigantic figure was never seen in the doorways; he was
+failing.
+
+Bandy-legged he had always been, but this defect had increased; his
+herculean back was rounded, and he stooped a little. His forehead,
+always of the broadest--no one else's hat would fit him--was now one of
+the highest, that is to say, he had lost all his hair, except a ragged
+lock over each ear and a thin fringe behind. He was beginning also to
+lose his teeth, which were strong though small, and blackened by
+tobacco; and now, instead of "deuce take it" he said "deush take it."
+
+He had always held his hands half closed as though grasping something;
+now they had stiffened so that he could never open them fully. The
+little finger of his left hand had been bitten off "in gratitude" by an
+adversary whom he had knocked down: according to Harald's version of
+the story, he had compelled the fellow to swallow the piece on the spot.
+
+He was fond of caressing the stump, and it often served as an
+introduction to the history of his exploits, which became greater and
+greater as he grew older and quieter.
+
+His small sharp eyes were deep set and looked at one with great
+intensity. There was power in his individuality, and, besides shrewd
+sense, he possessed a considerable gift for mechanics. His boundless
+self-esteem was not devoid of greatness, and the emphasis with which
+both body and soul proclaimed themselves made him one of the originals
+of the country.
+
+Why was he nothing more?
+
+He lived on his estate, Hellebergene, whose large woods skirted the
+coast, while numerous leasehold farms lay along the course of the
+river. At one time this estate had belonged to the Kurt family, and had
+now come back to them, in so far as that Harald's father, as every one
+knew, was not a Kaas at all, but a Kurt; it was he who had got the
+estate together again; a book might be written about the ways and means
+that he had employed.
+
+The house looked out over a bay studded with islands; farther out were
+more islands and the open sea. An immensely long building, raised on an
+old and massive foundation, its eastern wing barely half furnished, the
+western inhabited by Harald Kaas, who lived his curious life here.
+
+These wings were connected by two covered galleries, one above the
+other, with stairs at each end.
+
+Curiously enough, these galleries did not face the sea, that is, the
+south, but the fields and woods to the north. The portion of the house
+between the two wings was a neutral territory--namely, a large
+dining-room with a ballroom above it, neither of which was used in
+later years.
+
+Harald Kaas's suite of rooms was distinguished from without by a mighty
+elk's head with its enormous antlers, which was set up over the gallery.
+
+In the gallery itself were heads of bear, wolf, fox and lynx, with
+stuffed birds from land and sea. Skins and guns hung on the walls of
+the anteroom, the inner rooms were also full of skins and impregnated
+with the smell of wild animals and tobacco-smoke. Harald himself called
+it "Man-smell;" no one who had once put his nose inside could ever
+forget it.
+
+Valuable and beautiful skins hung on the walls and covered the floors;
+his very bed was nothing else; Harald Kaas lay, and sat, and walked on
+skins, and each one of them was a welcome subject of conversation, for
+he had shot and flayed every single animal himself. To be sure, there
+were those who hinted that most of the skins had been bought from Brand
+and Company, of Bergen, and that only the stories were shot and flayed
+at home.
+
+I for my part think that this was an exaggeration; but be that as it
+may, the effect was equally thrilling when Harald Kaas, seated in his
+log chair by the fireside, his feet on the bearskin, opened his shirt
+to show us the scars on his hairy chest (and what scars they were!)
+which had been made by the bear's teeth, when he had driven his knife,
+right up to the haft, into the monster's heart. All the queer tankards,
+and cupboards, and carved chairs listened with their wonted
+impassiveness.
+
+Harald Kaas was sixty, when, in the month of July, he sailed into the
+bay accompanied by four ladies whom he had brought from the steamer--an
+elderly lady and three young ones, all related to him. They were to
+stay with him until August.
+
+They occupied the upper storey. From it they could hear him walking
+about and grunting below them. They began to feel a little nervous.
+Indeed, three of them had had serious misgivings about accepting the
+invitation; and these misgivings were not diminished when, next
+morning, they saw Kaas composedly strolling up from the sea stark naked!
+
+They screamed, and, gathering together, still in their nightgowns, held
+a council of war as to the advisability of leaving at once; but when
+one of them cried "You should not have called us, Aunt, and then we
+should not have seen him," they could not help laughing, and therewith
+the whole affair ended. Certainly they were a little stiff at
+breakfast; but when Harold Kaas began a story about an old black mare
+of his which was in love with a young brown horse over at the Dean's,
+and which plunged madly if any other horse came near her, but, on the
+other hand, put her head coaxingly on one side and whinnied "like a
+dainty girl" whenever the parson's horse came that way--well, at that
+they had to give in, as well first as last.
+
+If they had strayed here out of curiosity they must just put up with
+the "NIGHT side of nature," as Harald Kaas expressed it, with the
+stress on the first word.
+
+For all that they were nearly frightened out of their wits the very
+next night, when he discharged his gun right under their windows. The
+aunt even asserted that he had shot through her open casement. She
+screamed loudly, and the others, starting from their sleep, were out on
+the floor before they knew where they were. Then they crouched in the
+windows and peeped out, although their aunt declared that they would
+certainly be shot--they really must see what it was.
+
+Yes! there they saw him among the cherry and apple trees, gun in hand,
+and they could hear him swearing. In the greatest trepidation they
+crept back into bed again. Next morning they learned that he had shot
+at some night prowlers, one of whom had got "half the charge in his
+leg, that he had, Deush take him! It ain't the prowling I mind, but
+that he should prowl here. We bachelors will have no one poaching on
+our preserves."
+
+The four ladies sat as stiff as four church candles, till at length one
+of them sprang up with a scream, the others joining in chorus.
+
+The visitors were not bored; Harald Kaas dealt too much in the
+unexpected for that. There was a charm, too, in the great woods, where
+there had been no felling since he had come into the property, and
+there were merry walks by the riverside and plenty of fish in the river.
+
+They bathed, they took delightful sails in the cutter and drives about
+the neighbourhood, though certainly the turn-out was none of the
+smartest.
+
+The youngest of the girls, Kristen Ravn, presently became less eager to
+join in these expeditions. She had fallen in love with the disused east
+wing of the house, and there she spent many a long hour, alone by the
+open window, gazing out at the great lime-trees which stood straggling,
+gaunt, and mysterious.
+
+"You ought to build a balcony here, out towards the sea," she said.
+"Look how the water glitters between the limes."
+
+When once she had hit upon a plan, Kristen Ravn never relinquished it,
+and when she had suggested it some four or five times, he promised that
+it should be done. But on the heels of this scheme came another.
+
+"Below the first balcony there must be another wider one," said she in
+her soft voice, "and it must have steps at each end down to the
+lawn--the lawn is so lovely just here."
+
+The unheard-of presumption of her demand inoculated him with the idea,
+and at length he consented to this as well.
+
+"The rooms must be refurnished," she gravely commanded. "The one next
+to the balcony which is to be built under here shall be in yellow pine,
+and the floor must be polished." She pointed with her long delicate
+hand. "ALL the floors must be polished. I will give you the design for
+the room above, I have thought it carefully out." And in imagination
+she papered the walls, arranged the furniture, and hung up curtains of
+wondrous patterns.
+
+"I know, too, how the other rooms are to be done," she added. And she
+went from one to the other, remaining a little while in each. He
+followed, like an old horse led by the bridle.
+
+Before their visit was half over he most coolly neglected three out of
+his four guests.
+
+His deep-set eyes twinkled with the liveliest admiration whenever she
+approached. He sought in the faces of the others the admiration which
+he himself felt: he would amble round her like an old photographic
+camera which had the power of setting itself up.
+
+But from the day when she took down from his bookshelf a French work on
+mechanics, a subject with which she was evidently acquainted and for
+which she declared that she had a natural aptitude, it was all over
+with him. From that day forward, if she were present, he effaced
+himself both in word and action.
+
+In the mornings when he met her in one of her characteristic costumes
+he laughed softly, or gazed and gazed at her, and then glanced towards
+the others. She did not talk much, but every word that she uttered
+aroused his admiration. But he was most of all captivated when she sat
+quietly apart, heedless of every one: at such times he resembled an old
+parrot expectant of sugar.
+
+His linen had always been snowy white, but beyond this he had taken no
+special pains with his toilet; but now he strutted about in a Tussore
+silk coat, which he had bought in Algiers, but had at once put aside
+because it was too tight--he looked like a clipt box hedge in it.
+
+Now, who was this lion-tamer of twenty-one, who, without in the least
+wishing to do so, unconsciously even (she was the quietest of the
+party), had made the monarch of the forest crouch at her feet and gaze
+at her in abject humility?
+
+Look at her, as she sits there, with her loose shining hair of the
+prettiest shade of dark red; look at her broad forehead and prominent
+nose, but more than all at those large wondering eyes; look at her
+throat and neck, her tall slight figure; notice especially the
+Renaissance dress which she wears, its style and colour, and your
+curiosity will still remain unsatisfied, for she has an individuality
+all her own.
+
+Kristen Ravn had lost her mother at her birth and her father when she
+was five years old. The latter left her a handsome fortune, with the
+express condition that the investments should not be changed, and that
+the income should be for her own use whether she married or not. He
+hoped by this means to form her character. She was brought up by three
+different members of her wide-branching family, a family which might
+more properly be termed a clan, although they had no common
+characteristics beyond a desire to go their own way.
+
+When two Ravns meet they, as a rule, differ on every subject; but as a
+race they hold religiously together--indeed, in their eyes there is no
+other family which is "amusing," the favourite adjective of the Ravns.
+
+Kristen had a receptive nature; she read everything, and remembered
+what she read; that is say, she had a logical mind, for a retentive
+memory implies an orderly brain. She was consequently NUMBER ONE in
+everything which she took up. This, coupled with the fact that she
+lived among those who regarded her somewhat as a speculation, and
+consequently flattered her, had early made an impression on her nature,
+quite as great, indeed, as the possession of money.
+
+She was by no means proud, it was not in the Ravn nature to be so; but
+at ten years old she had left off playing; she preferred to wander in
+the woods and compose ballads. At twelve she insisted on wearing silk
+dresses, and, in the teeth of an aunt all curls and lace and with a
+terrible flow of words, she carried her point. She held herself erect
+and prim in her silks, and still remained NUMBER ONE. She composed
+verses about Sir Adge and Maid Else, about birds and flowers and sad
+things.
+
+On reaching the age at which other girls, who have the means, begin to
+wear silk dresses, she left them off. She was tired, she said, of the
+"smooth and glossy."
+
+She now grew enthusiastic for fine wool and expensive velvet of every
+shade. Dresses in the Renaissance style became her favourites, and the
+subject of her studies. She puffed out her bodices like those in
+Leonardo's and Rafael's portraits of women, and tried in other ways as
+well to resemble them.
+
+She left off writing verses, and wrote stories instead; the style was
+good, though they were anything rather than spontaneous.
+
+They were short, with a more or less clear pointe. Stories by a girl of
+eighteen do not as a general rule make a sensation, but these were
+particularly audacious. It was evident that their only object was to
+scandalise. Instead of her own name she used the nom-de-plume of
+"Puss." This, however, was only to postpone the announcement that the
+author who scandalised her readers most, and that at a time when every
+author strove to do so, was a girl of eighteen belonging to one of the
+first families in the country.
+
+Soon every one knew that "Puss" was she of the tumbled red locks, "the
+tall Renaissance figure with the Titian hair."
+
+Her hair was abundant, glossy, and slightly curling; she still wore it
+hanging loose over her neck and shoulders, as she had done as a child.
+Her great eyes seemed to look out upon a new world; but one felt that
+the lower part of her face was scarcely in harmony with the upper. The
+cheeks fell in a little; the prominent nose made the mouth look smaller
+than it actually was; her neck seemed only to lead the eye downward to
+her bosom, which almost appeared to caress her throat, especially when
+her head was bent forward, as was generally the case. And very
+beautiful the throat was, delicate in colour, superb in contour, and
+admirably set upon the bust. For this reason she could never find in
+her heart to hide this full white neck, but always kept it uncovered.
+Her finely moulded bust surmounting a slender waist and small hips, her
+rounded arms, her long hands, her graceful carriage, in her
+tightly-fitting dress, formed such a striking picture that one did more
+than look--one was obliged to study her, When the elegance and beauty
+of her dress were taken into account, one realised how much
+intelligence and artistic taste had here been exercised.
+
+She was friendly in society, natural and composed, always occupied with
+something, always with that wondering expression. She spoke very
+little, but her words were always well chosen.
+
+All this, and her general disposition, made people chary of opposing
+her, more especially those who knew how intelligent she was and how
+much knowledge she possessed.
+
+She had no friends of her own, but her innumerable relations supplied
+her with society, gossip, and flattery, and were at once her friends
+and body-guard. She would have had to go abroad to be alone.
+
+Among these relations she was a princess: they not only paid her
+homage, but had sworn by "Life and Death" that she must marry without
+more ado, which was absolutely against her wish.
+
+From her childhood she had been laying by money, but the amount of her
+savings was far less than her relations supposed. This rather mythical
+fortune contributed not a little to the fact that "every one" was in
+love with her. Not only the bachelors of the family, that was a matter
+of course, but artists and amateurs, even the most blase, swarmed round
+her, la jeunesse doree (which is homely enough in Norway), without an
+exception. A living work of art, worth more or less money, piquante and
+admired, how each longed to carry her home, to gloat over her, to call
+her his own!
+
+There was surely more intensity of feeling near her than near others, a
+losing of oneself in one only; that unattainable dream of the
+world-weary.
+
+With her one could lead a thoroughly stylish life, full of art and
+taste and comfort. She was highly cultivated, and absolutely
+emancipated--our little country did not, in those days, possess a more
+alluring expression.
+
+When face to face with her they were uncertain how to act, whether to
+approach her diffidently or boldly, smile or look serious, talk or be
+silent.
+
+What these idle wooers gleaned from her stories, her characteristic
+dress, her wondering eyes, and her quiet dreaminess, was not the
+highest, but they expended their energy thereon; so that their
+unbounded discomfiture may be imagined when, in the autumn, the news
+spread that Fruken Kristen Ravn was married to Harald Kaas.
+
+They burst into peals of derisive laughter they scoffed, they
+exclaimed; the only explanation they could offer was that they had too
+long hesitated to try their fortune.
+
+There were others, who both knew and admired her, who were no less
+dismayed. They were more than disappointed--the word is too weak; to
+many of them it seemed simply deplorable. How on earth could it have
+happened? Every one, herself excepted, knew that it would ruin her life.
+
+On Kristen Ravn's independent position, her strong character, her rare
+courage, on her knowledge, gifts, and energy, many, especially women,
+had built up a future for the cause of Woman. Had she not already
+written fearlessly for it? Her tendency towards eccentricity and
+paradox would soon have worn off, they thought, as the struggle carried
+her forward, and at last she might have become one of the first
+champions of the cause. All that was noblest and best in Kristen must
+predominate in the end.
+
+And now the few who seek to explain life's perplexities rather than to
+condemn them discovered--Some of them, that the defiant tone of her
+writings and her love of opposition bespoke a degree of vanity
+sufficient to have led her into fallacy. Others maintained that hers
+was essentially a romantic nature which might cause her to form a false
+estimate both of her own powers and of the circumstances of life.
+Others, again, had heard something of how this husband and wife lived,
+one in each wing of the house, with different staffs of servants, and
+with separate incomes; that she had furnished her side in her own way,
+at her own expense, and had apparently conceived the idea of a new kind
+of married life. Some people declared that the great lime-trees near
+the mansion at Hellebergene were alone responsible for the marriage.
+They soughed so wondrously in the summer evenings, and the sea beneath
+their branches told such enthralling stories. Those grand old woods,
+the like of which were hardly to be found in impoverished Norway, were
+far dearer to her than was her husband. Her imagination had been taken
+captive by the trees, and thus Harald Kaas had taken HER. The estate,
+the climate, the exclusive possession of her part of the house: this
+was the bait which she had chosen. Harald Kaas was only a kind of Puck
+who had to be taken along with it. But it is doubtful whether this
+conjecture was any nearer the truth. No one ever really knew. She was
+not one of those whom it is easy to catechise.
+
+Every one wearies at last of trying to solve even the most interesting
+of enigmas. No one could tolerate the sound of her name when, four
+months after her marriage, she was seen in a stall at the Christiania
+Theatre just as in old days, though looking perhaps a little paler.
+Every opera-glass was levelled at her. She wore a light, almost white,
+dress, cut square as usual. She did not hide her face behind her fan.
+She looked about her with her wondering eyes, as though she was quite
+unconscious that there were other people in the theatre or that any one
+could be looking at her. Even the most pertinacious were forced to
+concede that she was both physically and mentally unique, with a charm
+all her own.
+
+But just as she had become once more the subject of general
+conversation, she disappeared. It afterwards transpired that her
+husband had fetched her away, though hardly any one had seen him. It
+was concluded that they must have had their first quarrel over it.
+
+Accurate information about their joint life was never obtained. The
+attempts of her relations to force themselves upon them were quite
+without result, except that they found out that she was enceinte,
+notwithstanding her utmost efforts to conceal the fact.
+
+She sent neither letter nor announcement; but in the summer, when she
+was next seen in Christiania, she was wheeling a perambulator along
+Karl Johan Street, her eyes as wondering as though some one had just
+put it between her hands. She looked handsomer and more blooming than
+ever.
+
+In the perambulator lay a boy with his mother's broad forehead, his
+mother's red hair. The child was charmingly dressed, and he, as well as
+the perambulator, was so daintily equipped, so completely in harmony
+with herself, that every one understood the reply that she gave, when,
+after the usual congratulations, her acquaintances inquired, "Shall we
+soon have a new story from you?"--she answered, "A new story? Here it
+is!"
+
+But, notwithstanding the unalloyed happiness which she displayed here,
+it could no longer be concealed that more often than not she was absent
+from home, and that she never mentioned her husband's name. If any one
+spoke of him to her, she changed the subject. By the time that the boy
+was a year old, it had become evident that she contemplated leaving
+Hellebergene entirely. She had been in Christiania for some time and
+had gone home to make arrangements, saying that she should come back in
+a few days.
+
+But she never did so.
+
+The day after her return home, while the numerous servants at
+Hellebergene, as well as the labourers with their wives and children,
+were all assembled at the potato digging, Harald Kaas appeared,
+carrying his wife under his left arm like a sack. He held her round the
+waist, feet first, her face downwards and hidden by her hair, her hands
+convulsively clutching his left thigh, her legs sometimes hanging down,
+sometimes straight out. He walked composedly out with her, holding in
+his right hand a bunch of long fresh birch twigs. A little way from the
+gallery he paused, and laying her across his left knee, he tore off
+some of her clothes, and beat her until the blood flowed. She never
+uttered a sound. When he put her from him, she tremblingly
+rearranged--first her hair, thus displaying her face just as the blood
+flowed back from it, leaving it deadly white. Tears of pain and shame
+rolled down her cheeks; but still not a sound. She tried to rearrange
+her dress, but her tattered garments trailed behind her as she went
+back to the house. She shut the door after her, but had to open it
+again; her torn clothes had caught fast in it.
+
+The women stood aghast; some of the children screamed with fright: this
+infected the rest, and there was a chorus of sobs. The men, most of
+whom had been sitting smoking their pipes, but who had sprung to their
+feet again, stood filled with shame and indignation.
+
+It had not been without a pang that Harald Kaas had done this, his face
+and manner had shown it for a long time and still did so; but he had
+expected that a roar of laughter would greet his extraordinary vagary.
+This was evident from the composure with which he had carried his wife
+out; and still more from the glance of gratified revenge with which he
+looked round him afterwards. But there was only dead stillness,
+succeeded by weeping, sobbing, and indignation. He stood there for a
+moment, quite overcome, then went indoors again, a defeated, utterly
+broken man.
+
+In every encounter with this delicate creature the giant had been
+worsted.
+
+After this, however, she never went beyond the grounds. For the first
+few years she was only seen by the people about the estate, and by them
+but seldom. Sometimes she would take her boy out in his little
+carriage, or, as time went on, would lead him by the hand, sometimes
+she was alone. She was generally wrapped in a big shawl, a different
+one for each dress she wore, and which she always held tightly round
+her. This was so characteristic of her that to this day I hear people
+from the neighbourhood talk about it as though she were never seen
+otherwise.
+
+What then did she do? She studied; she had given up writing: for more
+than one reason it had become distasteful to her. She had changed roles
+with her husband, giving herself up to mathematics, chemistry, and
+physics, she made calculations and analyses--sending for books and
+materials for these objects. The people on the estate saw nothing
+extraordinary in all this. From the first they had admired her delicacy
+and beauty. Every one admired her; it was only the manner and degree
+that varied.
+
+Little by little she came to be regarded as one whose life and thoughts
+were beyond their comprehension.
+
+She sought no one, but to those who came to her she never refused
+help--more or less. She made herself well acquainted with the facts of
+each case; no one could ever deceive her. Whether she gave much or
+little, she imposed no conditions, she never lectured them. Her opinion
+was expressed by the amount that she gave.
+
+Her husband's behaviour towards her was such that, had she not been
+very popular, she could not have remained at Hellebergene; that is to
+say, he opposed and thwarted her in every way he could; but every one
+took her part.
+
+The boy! Could not he have been a bond of union? On the contrary, there
+were those who declared that it was from the time of his birth that
+things had gone amiss between the parents. The first time that his
+father saw him the nurse reported that he "came in like a lord and went
+out like a beggar!" The mother lay down again and laughed; the nurse
+had never seen the like of it before. Had he expected that his child
+must of necessity resemble him, only to find it the image of its mother?
+
+When the boy was old enough he loved to wander across to his father's
+rooms where there were so many curious things to see; his father always
+received him kindly, talking in a way suited to his childish
+intelligence, but he would take occasion to cut away a quantity of his
+hair. His mother let it grow free and long like her own, and his father
+perpetually cut it. The boy would have been glad enough to be rid of
+it, but when he grew a little older, he comprehended his father's
+motive, and thenceforth he was on his guard.
+
+When the people on the estate had told him something of his father's
+highly-coloured histories of his feats of strength and his achievements
+by land and water, the boy began to feel a shy admiration for him, but
+at the same time he felt all the more strongly the intolerable yoke
+which he laid upon them--upon every living being on the estate. It
+became a secret religion with him to oppose his father and help his
+mother, for it was she who suffered. He would resemble her even to his
+hair, he would protect her, he would make it all up to her. It was a
+positive delight to him when his father made him suffer: he absolutely
+felt proud when he called him Rafaella, instead of Rafael, the name
+which his mother had chosen for him; it was the one that she loved best.
+
+No one was allowed to use the boats or the carriage, no one might walk
+through the woods, which had been fenced in, the horses were never
+taken out. No repairs were undertaken; if Fru Kaas attempted to have
+anything done at her own expense, the workmen were ordered off: there
+could no longer be any doubt about it, he wished everything to go to
+rack and ruin. The property went from bad to worse, and the
+woods--well! It was no secret, every one on the place talked about
+it--the timber was being utterly ruined. The best and largest trees
+were already rotten; by degrees the rest would become so.
+
+At twelve years of age Rafael began to receive religious teaching from
+the Dean: the only subject in which his mother did not instruct him. He
+shared these lessons with Helene, the Dean's only child, who was four
+years younger than Rafael and of whom he was devotedly fond.
+
+The Dean told them the story of David. The narrative was unfolded with
+additions and explanations; the boy made a picture of it to himself;
+his mother had taught him everything in this way.
+
+Assyrian warriors with pointed beards, oblique eyes, and oblong
+shields, had to represent the Israelites; they marched by in an endless
+procession. He saw the blue-green of the vineyards on the hillside, the
+shadow of the dusty palm-trees upon the dusty road. Then a wood of
+aromatic trees into which all the warriors fled.
+
+Then followed the story of Absalom.
+
+"Absalom rebelled against his father, what a dreadful thing to think
+of," said the Dean. "A grown-up man to rebel against his father." He
+chanced to look towards Rafael, who turned as red as fire.
+
+The thought which was constantly in his mind was that when he was grown
+up he should rebel against his father.
+
+"But Absalom was punished in a marvellous manner," continued the Dean.
+"He lost the battle, and as he fled through the woods, his long hair
+caught in a tree, the horse ran away from under him, and he was left
+hanging there until he was run through by a spear."
+
+Rafael could see Absalom hanging there, not in the long Assyrian
+garments, not with a pointed beard. No! Slender and young, in Rafael's
+tight-fitting breeches and stockings, and with his own red hair! Ah!
+how distinctly he saw it! The horse galloping far away--the grey one at
+home which he used to ride by stealth when his father was asleep after
+dinner. He could see the tall, slender lad, dangling and swaying, with
+a spear through his body. Distinctly! Distinctly!
+
+This vision, which he never mentioned to a soul, he could not get rid
+of. To be left hanging there by his hair--what a strange punishment for
+rebelling against his father!
+
+Certainly he already knew the history, but till now he had paid no
+special heed to it.
+
+It was on a Friday that this great impression had been made on him, and
+on the following Thursday morning he awoke to see his mother standing
+over him with her most wondering expression. Her hair still as she had
+plaited it for the night; one plait had touched him on the nose and
+awoke him before she spoke. She stood bending over him, in her long
+white nightgown with its dainty lace trimming, and with bare feet. She
+would never have come in like that if something terrible had not
+happened. Why did she not speak? only look and look--or was she really
+frightened?
+
+"Mother!" he cried, sitting up.
+
+Then she bent close down to him. "THE MAN IS DEAD," she whispered. It
+was his father whom she called "the man," she never spoke of him
+otherwise.
+
+Rafael did not comprehend what she said, or perhaps it paralysed him.
+She repeated it again louder and louder, "The man is dead, the man is
+dead."
+
+Then she stood upright, and putting out her bare feet from under her
+nightgown, she began to dance--only a few steps; and then she slipped
+away through the door which stood half open. He jumped up and ran after
+her; there she lay on the sofa, sobbing. She felt that he was behind
+her, she raised herself quickly, and, still sobbing, pressed him to her
+heart.
+
+Even when they stood together beside the body, the hand which he had in
+his shook so that he threw his arms round her, thinking that she would
+fall.
+
+Later in life, when he recalled this, he understood what she had
+silently endured, what an unbending will she had brought to the
+struggle, but also what it had cost her.
+
+At the time he did not in the least comprehend it. He imagined that she
+suffered from the horror of the moment as he himself did.
+
+There lay the giant, in wretchedness and squalor! He who had once
+boasted of his cleanliness, and expected the like in others, lay there,
+dirty and unshaven, under dirty bed clothes, in linen so ragged and
+filthy that no workman on the estate had worse. The clothes which he
+had worn the day before lay on a chair beside the bed, miserably
+threadbare, foul with dirt, sweat, and tobacco, and stinking like
+everything else. His mouth was distorted, his hands tightly clenched;
+he had died of a stroke.
+
+And how forlorn and desolate was all around him! Why had his son never
+noticed this before? Why had he never felt that his father was lonely
+and forsaken? To how great an extent no words could express.
+
+Rafael burst into tears; louder and louder grew his sobbing, until it
+sounded through all the rooms. The people from the estate came in one
+by one. They wished to satisfy their curiosity.
+
+The boy's crying, unconsciously to himself, influenced them all: they
+saw everything in a new light. How unfortunate, how desolate, how
+helpless had he been who now lay there. Lord, have mercy on us all!
+
+When the corpse of Harald Kaas had been laid out, the face shaved, and
+the eyes closed, the distortion was less apparent. They could trace
+signs of suffering, but the expression was still virile. It seemed a
+handsome face to them now.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+Within a few days of the funeral mother and son were in England.
+
+Rafael was now to enter upon a long course of study, for which, by his
+earlier education, his mother had prepared him, and for which, by
+painful privations, she had saved up sufficient money.
+
+The property was to the last degree impoverished, and burdened with
+mortgages, and the timber only fit for fuel.
+
+Their neighbour the Dean, a clear-headed and practical man, took upon
+himself the management of affairs; as money was needed the work of
+devastation must begin at once. The mother and son did not wish to
+witness it.
+
+They came to England like two fugitives who, after many and great
+trials, for affection's sake seek a new home and a new country.
+
+Rafael was then twelve years old.
+
+They were inseparable, and in the shiftless life that they led in their
+new surroundings they became, if possible, more closely attached to
+each other.
+
+Yet not long afterwards they had their first disagreement.
+
+He had gone to school, had begun to learn the language and to make
+friends, and had developed a great desire to show off.
+
+He was very tall and slender and was anxious to be athletic. He took an
+active part in the play-ground, but here he achieved no great success.
+On the other hand, thanks to his mother, he was better informed than
+his comrades, and he contrived to obtain prominence by this. This
+prominence must be maintained, and nothing answered so well as boasting
+about Norway and his father's exploits. His statements were somewhat
+exaggerated, but that was not altogether his fault, He knew English
+fairly well, but had not mastered its niceties. He made use of
+superlatives, which always come the most readily. It was true that he
+had inherited from his father twenty guns, a large sailing-boat, and
+several smaller ones; but how magnificent these boats and guns had
+become!
+
+He intended to go to the North Pole, he said, as his father had done,
+to shoot white bears, and invited them all to come with him.
+
+He made a greater impression on his hearers than he himself was aware
+of; but something more was wanted, for it was impossible to foretell
+from day to day what might be expected of him. He had to study hard in
+order to meet the demand.
+
+As an outcome of this, he betook himself one evening to the
+hairdresser's, with some of his schoolfellows, and, without more ado,
+requested him to cut his hair quite close. That ought to satisfy them
+for a long time.
+
+The other boys had teased him about his hair, and it got in the way
+when he was playing--he hated it. Besides, ever since the story of
+Absalom's rebellion and punishment, it had remained a secret terror to
+him, but it had never before occurred to him to have it cut off.
+
+His schoolfellows were dismayed, and the hairdresser looked on it as a
+work of wilful destruction.
+
+Rafael felt his heart begin to sink, but the very audacity of the thing
+gave him courage They should see what he dare do. The hairdresser
+hesitated to act without Fru Kaas's knowledge, but at length he ceased
+to make objections.
+
+Rafael's heart sank lower and lower, but he must go through with it
+now. "Off with it," he said, and remained immovable in the chair.
+
+"I have never seen more splendid hair," said the hairdresser
+diffidently, taking up the scissors but still hesitating.
+
+Rafael saw that his companions were on the tiptoe of expectation. "Off
+with it," he said again with assumed indifference.
+
+The hairdresser cut the hair into his hand and laid it carefully in
+paper.
+
+The boys followed every snip of the scissors with their eyes, Rafael
+with his ears; he could not see in the glass.
+
+When the hairdresser had finished and had brushed his clothes for him,
+he offered him the hair. "What do I want with it?" said Rafael. He
+dusted his elbows and knees a little, paid, and left the shop, followed
+by his companions. They, however, exhibited no particular admiration.
+He caught a glimpse of himself in the glass as he went out, and thought
+that he looked frightful.
+
+He would have given all that he possessed (which was not much), he
+would have endured any imaginable suffering, he thought, to have his
+hair back again.
+
+His mother's wondering eyes rose up before him with every shade of
+expression; his misery pursued him, his vanity mocked him. The end of
+it all was that he stole up to his room and went to bed without his
+supper.
+
+But when his mother had vainly waited for him, and some one suggested
+that he might be in the house, she went to his room.
+
+He heard her on the stairs; he felt that she was at the door. When she
+entered he had hidden his head beneath the bedclothes. She dragged them
+back; and at the first sight of her dismay he was reduced to such
+despair that the tears which were beginning to flow ceased at once.
+
+White and horror-struck she stood there; indeed she thought at first
+that some one had done it maliciously; but when she could not extract a
+word of enlightenment, she suspected mischief.
+
+He felt that she was waiting for an explanation, an excuse, a prayer
+for forgiveness, but he could not, for the life of him, get out a word.
+
+What, indeed, could he say? He did not understand it himself. But now
+he began to cry violently. He huddled himself together, clasping his
+head between his hands. It felt like a bristly stubble.
+
+When he looked up again his mother was gone.
+
+A child sleeps in spite of everything. He came down the next morning in
+a contrite mood and thoroughly shamefaced. His mother was not up; she
+was unwell, for she had not slept a wink. He heard this before he went
+to her. He opened her door timidly. There she lay, the picture of
+wretchedness.
+
+On the toilet-table, in a white silk handkerchief, was his hair,
+smoothed and combed.
+
+She lay there in her lace-trimmed nightgown, great tears rolling down
+her cheeks. He had come, intending to throw himself into her arms and
+beg her pardon a thousand times. But he had a strong feeling that he
+had better not do so, or was he afraid to? She was in the clouds, far,
+far away. She seemed in a trance: something, at once painful and
+sacred, held her enchained. She was both pathetic and sublime.
+
+The boy stepped quietly from the room and hurried off to school.
+
+She remained in bed that day and the next, and made him sit with the
+servant in order that she might be alone. When she was in trouble she
+always behaved thus, and that he should cross her in this way was the
+greatest trial that she had ever known. It came upon her, too, like a
+deluge of rain from a clear sky. NOW it seemed to her that she could
+foresee his future--and her own.
+
+She laid the blame of all this on his paternal ancestry. She could not
+see that incessant artistic fuss and too much intellectual training
+had, perhaps, aroused in him a desire for independence.
+
+The first time that she saw him again with his cropped head, which grew
+more and more like his father's in shape, her tears flowed quietly.
+
+When he wished to come to her side, she waived him back with her
+shapely hand, nor would she talk to him; when he talked she hardly
+looked at him; till at last he burst into tears. For he suffered as one
+can suffer but once, when the childish penitence is fresh and therefore
+boundless, and when the yearning for love has received its first rebuff.
+
+But when, on the fifth day, she met him coming up the stairs, she stood
+still in dismay at his appearance: pale, thin, timid; the effect
+perhaps heightened by the loss of his hair. He, too, stood still,
+looking forlorn and abject, with disconsolate eyes. Then hers filled;
+she stretched out her arms. He was once more in his Paradise, but they
+both cried as though they must wade through an ocean of tears before
+they could talk to each other again.
+
+"Tell me about it now," she whispered. This was in her own room. They
+had spoken the first fond words and kissed each other over and over
+again. "How could this have happened, Rafael?" she whispered again,
+with her head pressed to his; she did not wish to look at him while she
+spoke.
+
+"Mother," he answered, "it is worse to cut down the woods at home, at
+Hellebergene, than that I--"
+
+She raised her head and looked at him. She had taken off her hat and
+gloves, but now she put them quickly on again.
+
+"Rafael, dear," she said, "shall we go for a walk together in the park,
+under the grand old trees?"
+
+She had felt his retort to be ingenious.
+
+After this episode, however, England, and more especially her son's
+schoolfellows, became distasteful to her, and she constantly made plans
+to keep him away from the latter out of school hours.
+
+She found this very easy; sometimes she went over his studies with him,
+at others they visited all the Manufactories and "Works" for miles
+round.
+
+She liked to see for herself and awakened the same taste in him.
+
+Factories which, as a rule, were closed to visitors, were readily
+opened to the pretty elegant lady and her handsome boy, "who after all
+knew nothing at all about it;" and they were able to see almost all
+that they wished. It was a less congenial task to use her influence to
+turn his thoughts to higher things, but it was rarely, nevertheless,
+that she failed. She struggled hard over what she did not understand
+and sought for help. To explain these things to Rafael in the most
+attractive manner possible became a new occupation for her.
+
+His natural disposition inclined him to such studies; but to a boy of
+thirteen, who was thus kept from his comrades and their sports, it soon
+became a nuisance.
+
+No sooner had Fru Kaas noticed this than she took active steps. They
+left England and crossed to France.
+
+The strange speech threw him back on her; no one shared him with her.
+They settled in Calais. A few days after their arrival she cut her hair
+short; she hoped that it would touch him to see that as he would not
+look like her, she tried to look like him--to be a. boy like him. She
+bought a smart new hat, she composed a jaunty costume, new from top to
+toe, for EVERYTHING must be altered with the hair. But when she stood
+before him, looking like a girl of twenty-five, merry, almost
+boisterous, he was simply dismayed--nay, it was some time before he
+could altogether comprehend what had happened. As long as he could
+remember his mother, her eyes had always looked forth from beneath a
+crown; more solemn, more beautiful.
+
+"Mother," he said, "where are you?"
+
+She grew pale and grave, and stammered something about its being more
+comfortable--about red hair not looking well when it began to lose its
+colour--and went into her room. There she sat with his hair before her
+and her own beside it; she wept.
+
+"Mother, where are you?" She might have answered, "Rafael, where are
+you?"
+
+She went about with him everywhere. In France two handsome, stylishly
+dressed people are always certain to be noticed, a thing which she
+thoroughly appreciated.
+
+During their different expeditions she always spoke French; he begged
+her to talk Norse at least now and then, but all in vain.
+
+Here, too, they visited every possible and impossible factory.
+Unpractical and reserved as she was on ordinary occasions, she could be
+full of artifice and coquetry whenever she wished to gain access to a
+steam bakery and particular as she generally was about her toilette,
+she would come away again sooty and grimy if thereby she could procure
+for Rafael some insight into mechanics. She shrank from foul air as
+from the cholera, yet inhaled sulphuric acid gas as though it had been
+ozone for his sake.
+
+"Seeing for yourself, Rafael, is the substance, other methods are its
+shadow;" or "Seeing for yourself, Rafael, is meat and drink, the other
+is but literature."
+
+He was not quite of the same opinion: he thought that Notre Dame de
+Paris, from which he was daily dragged away, was the richest banquet
+that he had yet enjoyed, while from the factory of Mayel et fils there
+issued the most deadly odours.
+
+His reading--she had encouraged him in it for the sake of the language
+and had herself helped him; now she was jealous of it and could not be
+persuaded to get him new books; but he got them nevertheless.
+
+They had been in Calais for several months; he had masters and was
+beginning to feel himself at home, when there arrived at the pension a
+widow from one of the colonies, accompanied by her daughter, a girl of
+thirteen.
+
+The new comers had not appeared at meals for more than two days before
+the young gentleman began to pay his court to the young lady. From the
+first moment it was a plain case. Very soon every one in the pension
+was highly amused to notice how fluent his French was becoming; his
+choice of words at times was even elegant! The girl taught him it
+without a trace of grammar, by charm, sprightliness, a little nonsense;
+a pair of confiding eyes and a youthful voice were sufficient. It was
+from her that he got, by stealth, one novel after another. By stealth
+it had to be; by stealth Lucie had procured them; by stealth she gave
+them to him; by stealth they were read; by stealth she took them back
+again. This reading made him a little absent-minded, but otherwise
+nothing betrayed his flights into literature: to be sure, they were not
+very wonderful.
+
+Fru Kaas noticed her son's flirtation, and smiled with the rest over
+his progress in French. She had less objection to this friendship, in
+which, to a great extent, she shared, than to those in England, from
+which she had been quite excluded. In the evenings she would take the
+mother and daughter out for short excursions; and these she greatly
+enjoyed. But the novel reading which the young people carried on
+secretly had resulted in conversations of a "grown up" type. They
+talked of love with the deep experience which is proper to their age,
+they talked with still greater discretion as to when their wedding
+should take place; on this point they indirectly said much which caused
+them many a delightful tremor. As they were accustomed to talk about
+themselves before others, to describe their feelings in a veiled form,
+it often happened when there were many people near that they carried
+this amusement further, and before they were themselves aware of it,
+they were in the full tide of a symbolic language and played "catch"
+with each other.
+
+Fru Kaas noticed one evening that the word "rose" was drawn out to a
+greater length than it was possible for any rose to attain to; at the
+same time she saw the languishing look in their eyes, and broke in with
+the question, "What do you mean about the rose, child?"
+
+If any one had peeped behind a rose-bush and caught them kissing one
+another, a thing they had never done, they could not have blushed more.
+
+The next day Fru Kaas found new rooms, a long way from the quay near
+which they were living.
+
+Rafael had suffered greatly at being torn away from England just as he
+had come down from his high horse and had put himself on a par with his
+companions, but not the least notice was taken of his trouble; it had
+only annoyed his mother.
+
+To be absolutely debarred from the books he was so fond of had been
+hard; but up to this time, being in a foreign land, amid foreign
+speech, he had always fallen back upon her. Now he openly defied her.
+He went straight off to the hotel and sought out Madame Mery and her
+daughter as though nothing had occurred. This he did every day when he
+had finished his lessons. Lucie had now become his sole romance; he
+gave all his leisure time to her, and not only that (for it no longer
+sufficed to see her at her mother's), they met on the quay! At times a
+maid-servant walked with them for appearance sake, at others she kept
+in the background. Sometimes they would go on board a Norwegian ship,
+sometimes they wandered about or strolled beneath some great trees.
+When he saw her in her short frock come out of the door, saw her quick
+movements, and her lively signals to him with parasol or hat or
+flowers, the quay, the ships, the bales, the barrels, the air, the
+noise, the crowd, all seemed to play and sing,
+
+  "Enfant! si j'etais roi je donerais l'empire,
+   Et mon char, et mon septre, et mon peuple a genoux,"
+
+and he ran to meet her.
+
+He never dared to do more than to take both her chubby brown hands, nor
+to say more than "You are very sweet, you are very very good." And she
+never went further than to look at him, walk with him, laugh with him,
+and say to him, "You are not like the others." What experiences there
+had been in the life of this girl of thirteen goodness alone knows. He
+never asked her, he was too sure of her.
+
+He learned French from her as one bird feeds from another's bill, or as
+one who looks at his image in a fountain, as he drinks from it.
+
+One day, as mother and son were at breakfast, she glanced quietly
+across at him. "I heard of an excellent preparatory school of mechanics
+at Rouen," she said, "so I wrote to inquire about it, and here is the
+answer. I approve of it in all respects, as you will do when you read
+it. I think that we shall go to Rouen; what do you say to it?"
+
+He grew first red, then white; then put down his bread, his table
+napkin; got up and left the room. Later in the day she asked him
+whether he would not read the letter; he left her without answering. At
+last, just as he was going to meet Lucie on the quay, she said, and
+this time with determination, that they were to leave in the course of
+an hour. She had already packed up; as they stood there the man came to
+fetch the luggage. At that moment he felt that he could thoroughly
+understand why his father had beaten her.
+
+As they sat in the carriage which took them to the station he suffered
+keenly. It could not nave been worse, he thought, if his mother had
+stabbed him with a knife. He did not sit beside her in the railway
+carriage.
+
+During the first days at Rouen he would not answer when she spoke to
+him, nor ask a single question. He had adopted her own tactics; he
+carried them through with a cruelty of which he was not aware.
+
+For a long time he had been disposed to criticise her; now that this
+criticism was extended to all that she said or did, the spirit of
+accusation tinctured her whole life; their joint past seemed altered
+and debased.
+
+His father's bent form, in the log chair on the hairless skin,
+malodorous and dirty, rose up before him, in vivid contrast with his
+mother in her well appointed, airy, perfumed rooms!
+
+When Rafael stood by his father's body he had felt the same thing--that
+the old man had been badly treated. He himself had been encouraged to
+neglect his father, to shun him, to evade his orders. At that time he
+had laid the blame on the people on the estate; now he put it all down
+to his mother's account. His father had certainly adored her once, and
+this feeling had changed into wild self-consuming hatred. What had
+happened? He did not know; but he could not but admit that his mother
+would have tried the patience of Job.
+
+He pictured to himself how Lucie would come running with her flowers,
+search for him over the whole quay, farther and farther every time,
+standing still at last. He could not think of it without tears, and
+without a feeling of bitterness.
+
+But a child is a child. It was not a life-long grief. As the place was
+new and historically interesting, and as lessons had now begun and his
+mother was always with him, this feeling wore off, but the mutual
+restraint was still there. The critical spirit which had first been
+roused in England never afterwards left Rafael.
+
+The hours of study which they passed together produced good results.
+Beginning as her pupil, he had ended by becoming her teacher. She was
+anxious to keep up with him, and this was an advantage to him, on
+account of her almost too minute accuracy, but still more from her
+intelligent questions. Apart from study they passed many pleasant hours
+together, but they both knew that something was missing in their
+conversation which could never be there again.
+
+At longer or shorter intervals a shy silence interrupted this
+intercourse. Sometimes it was he, sometimes she, who, for some cause or
+other, often a most trivial one, elected not to reply, not to ask a
+question, not to see. When they were good friends he appreciated the
+best side of her character, the self-sacrificing life which she led for
+him. When they were not friends it was exactly the opposite. When they
+were friends, he, as a rule, did whatever she wished. He tried to atone
+for the past. He was in the land of courtesy and influenced by its
+teaching. When he was not friends with her he behaved as badly as
+possible. He early got among bad companions and into dissipated habits;
+he was the very child of Rebellion. At times he had qualms of
+conscience on account of it.
+
+She guessed this, and wished him to guess that she guessed it.
+
+"I perceive a strange atmosphere here, fie! Some one has mixed their
+atmosphere with yours, fie!" And she sprinkled him with scent.
+
+He turned as red as fire and, in his shame and misery, did not know
+which way to look. But if he attempted to speak she became as stiff as
+a poker, and, raising her small hand, "Taisez-vous des egards, sil vous
+plait."
+
+It must be said in her excuse that, notwithstanding the daring books
+which she had written, she had had no experience of real life; she knew
+no form of words for such an occasion. It came at last to this pass,
+that she, who had at one time wished to control his whole life and
+every thought in it, and who would not share him with any one, not even
+with a book, gradually became unwilling to have any relations with him
+outside his studies.
+
+The French language especially lends itself to formal intercourse and
+diplomacy. They grasped this fact from the first. It may, indeed, have
+contributed to form their mutual life. It was more equitable and caused
+fewer collisions. At the slightest disagreement it was at once
+"Monsieur mon fils" or simply "Monsieur," or "Madame ma mere," or
+"Madame."
+
+At one time his health seemed likely to suffer: his rapid growth and
+the studies, to which she kept him very closely, were too much for his
+strength.
+
+But just then something remarkable occurred. At the time when Rafael
+was nineteen he was one day in a French chemical factory, and, as it
+were in a flash, saw how half the power used in the machinery might be
+saved. The son of the owner who had brought him there was a
+fellow-student. To him he confided his discovery. They worked it out
+together with feverish excitement to the most minute details. It was
+very complex, for it was the working of the factory itself which was
+involved. The scheme was carefully gone into by the owner, his son, and
+their assistants together, and it was decided to try it. It was
+entirely successful; LESS than half the motive power now sufficed.
+
+Rafael was away at the time that it was inaugurated; he had gone down a
+mine. His mother was not with him; he never took her down mines with
+him. As soon as ever he returned home he hurried off with her to see
+the result of his work. They saw everything, and they both blushed at
+the respect shown to them by the workmen. They were quite touched when,
+the owner being called, they heard his expressions of boundless
+delight. Champagne flowed for them, accompanied by the warmest thanks.
+The mother received a beautiful bouquet. Excited by the wine and the
+congratulations, proud of his recognition as a genius, Rafael left the
+place with his mother on his arm. It seemed to him as though he were on
+one side, and all the rest of the world on the other. His mother walked
+happily beside him, with her bouquet in her hand. Rafael wore a new
+overcoat--one after his own heart, very long and faced with silk, and
+of which he was excessively proud. It was a clear winter's day; the sun
+shone on the silk, and on something more as well.
+
+"There is not a speck on the sky, mother," he said.
+
+"Nor one on your coat either," she retorted; for there had been a great
+many on his old one, and each had had its history.
+
+He was too big now to be turned to ridicule, and too happy as well. She
+heard him humming to himself: it was the Norwegian national air. They
+came back to the town again as from Elysium. All the passers-by looked
+at them: people quickly detect happiness. Besides Rafael was a head
+taller than most of them and fairer in complexion. He walked quickly
+along beside his elegant mother, and looked across the Boulevard as
+though from a sunny height.
+
+"There are days on which one feels oneself a different person," he said.
+
+"There are days on which one receives so much," she answered, pressing
+his arm.
+
+They went home, threw aside their wraps, and looked at one another.
+Sketches of the machinery which they had just seen lay about, as well
+as some rough drawings. These she collected and made into a roll.
+
+"Rafael," she said, and drew herself up, half laughing, half trembling,
+"kneel; I wish to knight you."
+
+It did not seem unnatural to him; he did so.
+
+"Noblesse oblige," she said, and let the roll of paper approach his
+head; but therewith she dropped it and burst into tears.
+
+He spent a merry evening with his friends, and was enthusiastically
+applauded. But as he lay in bed that night he felt utterly despondent.
+The whole thing might, after all, have been a mere chance. He had seen
+so much, had acquired so much information; it was no discovery that he
+had made. What was it, then? He was certainly not a genius; that must
+be an exaggeration. Could one imagine a genius without a victor's
+confidence, or had his peculiar life destroyed that confidence? This
+anxiety which constantly intruded itself; this bad conscience; this
+dreadful, vile conscience; this ineradicable dread; was it a
+foreboding? Did it point to the future?
+
+It was about half a year after this that his desultory studies became
+concentrated on electricity, and after a time this took them to Munich.
+During the course of these studies he began to write, quite
+spontaneously. The students had formed a society, and Rafael was
+expected to contribute a paper. But his contribution was so original
+that they begged him to show it to the professor, and this encouraged
+him greatly. It was the professor, too, who had his first article
+printed. A Norwegian technical periodical accepted a subsequent one,
+and this was the external influence which turned his thoughts once more
+towards Norway. Norway rose before him as the promised land of
+electricity. The motive power of its countless waterfalls was
+sufficient for the whole world! He saw his country during the winter
+darkness gleaming with electric lustre. He saw her, too, the
+manufactory of the world, the possessor of navies. Now he had something
+to go home for!
+
+His mother did not share his love for their country, and had no desire
+to live in Norway. But the money which she had saved up for his
+education bad been spent long ago. Hellebergene had had its share. The
+estate did not yield an equivalent, for it was essentially a timbered
+estate, and the trees on it were still immature.
+
+So it was to be home! A few years alone at Hellebergene was just what
+he wished for. But--something always occurred to prevent their
+departure at the time fixed for it. First he was detained by an
+invention which he wished to patent. Up to the present time he had only
+sketched out ideas which others had adopted; now it was to be
+different. The invention was duly patented and handed over to an agent
+to sell; but still they did not start. What was the hindrance? Another
+invention with a fresh patent more likely to sell than the first, which
+unfortunately did not go off. This patent was also taken out, which
+again cost money, and was handed over to the agent to be sold. Could he
+not start now? Well, yes, he thought he could. But Fru Kaas soon
+realised that he was not serious, so she sought the help of a young
+relative, Hans Ravn, an engineer, like most of the Ravns. Rafael liked
+Hans, for he was himself a Ravn in temperament, a thing that he had not
+realised before; it was quite a revelation to him. He had believed that
+the Ravns were like his mother, but now found that she greatly differed
+from them. To Hans Ravn Fru Kaas said plainly that now they must start.
+The last day of May was the date fixed on, and this Hans was to tell
+every one, for it would make Rafael bestir himself, his mother thought,
+if this were known everywhere. Hans Ravn spread this news far and near,
+partly because it was his province to do so, partly because he hoped it
+would be the occasion of a farewell entertainment such as had never
+been seen. A banquet actually did take place amid general enthusiasm,
+which ended in the whole company forming a procession to escort their
+guest to his house. Here they encountered a crowd of officers who were
+proceeding home in the same manner. They nearly came to blows, but
+fraternised instead, and the engineers cheered the officers and the
+officers the engineers.
+
+The next day the history of the two entertainments and the collision
+between the guests went the round of the papers.
+
+This produced results which Fru Kaas had not foreseen. The first was a
+very pleasant one. The professor who had had Rafael's first article
+published drove up to the door, accompanied by his family. He mounted
+the stairs, and asked her if she would not, in their company, once more
+visit the prettiest parts of Munich and its vicinity. She felt
+flattered, and accepted the invitation. As they drove along they talked
+of nothing but Rafael: partly about his person, for he was the darling
+of every lady, partly about the future which lay before him. The
+professor said that he had never had a more gifted pupil. Fru Kaas had
+brought an excellent binocular glass with her, which she raised to her
+eyes from time to time to conceal her emotion, and their hearty praise
+seemed to flood the landscape and buildings with sunshine.
+
+The little party lunched together, and drove home in the afternoon.
+
+When Fru Kaas re-entered her room, she was greeted by the scent of
+flowers. Many of their friends who had not till now known when they
+were to leave had wished to pay them some compliment. Indeed, the maid
+said that the bell had been ringing the whole morning. A little later
+Rafael and Hans Ravn came in with one or two friends. They proposed to
+dine together. The sale of the last patent seemed to be assured, and
+they wished to celebrate the event. Fru Kaas was in excellent spirits,
+so off they went.
+
+They dined in the open air with a number of other people round them.
+There was music and merriment, and the subdued hum of distant voices
+rose and fell in the twilight. When the lamps were lighted, they had on
+one side the glare of a large town, on the other the semi-darkness was
+only relieved by points of light; and this was made the subject of
+poetical allusions in speeches to the friends who were so soon to leave
+them.
+
+Just then two ladies slowly passed near Rafael's chair. Fru Kaas, who
+was sitting opposite, noticed them, but he did not. When they had gone
+a short distance they stood still and waited, but did not attract his
+attention. Then they came slowly back again, passing close behind his
+chair, but still in vain. This annoyed Fru Kaas. Her individuality was
+so strong that her silence cast a shadow over the whole party; they
+broke up.
+
+The next morning Rafael was out again on business connected with the
+patent. The bell rang, and the maid came in with a bill; it had been
+brought the previous day as well, she said. It was from one of the
+chief restaurateurs of the town, and was by no means a small one. Fru
+Kaas had no idea that Rafael owed money--least of all to a
+restaurateur. She told the maid to say that her son was of age, and
+that she was not his cashier. There was another ring--the maid
+reappeared with a second bill, which had also been brought the day
+before. It was from a well-known wine merchant; this, too, was not a
+small one. Another ring; this time it was a bill for flowers and by no
+means a trifle. This, too, had been brought the day before. Fru Kaas
+read it twice, three times, four times: she could not realise that
+Rafael owed money for flowers--what did he want them for? Another ring;
+now it was a bill from a jeweller. Fru Kaas became so nervous at the
+ringing and the bills that she took to flight. Here, then, was the
+explanation of their postponed departure: he was held captive; this was
+the reason for all his anxiety about selling the patent. He had to buy
+his freedom. She was hardly in the street when an unpretending little
+old woman stepped up to her, and asked timidly if this might be Frau
+von Kas? Another bill, thought Fru Kaas, eyeing her closely. She
+reminded one of a worn-out rose-bush with a few faded blossoms on it:
+she seemed poor and inexperienced in all save humility.
+
+"What do you want with me?" inquired Fru Kaas sympathetically, resolved
+to pay the poor thing at once, whatever it might be.
+
+The little woman begged "Tausend Mal um Verzeihung," but she was "Einer
+Beamten-Wittwe" and had read in the paper that the young Von Kas was
+leaving, and both she and her daughter were in such despair that she
+had resolved to come to Frau von Kas, who was the only one--and here
+she began to cry.
+
+"What does your daughter want from me?" asked Fru Kaas rather less
+gently.
+
+"Ach! tausend Mal um Verzeihung gnadige Frau," her daughter was married
+to Hofrath von Rathen--"ihrer grossen Schonheit wegen"--ah, she was so
+unhappy, for Hofrath von Rathen drank and was cruel to her. Herr von
+Kas had met her at the artists' fete--"Und so wissen Sie zwei so junge,
+reizende Leute." She looked up at Fru Kaas through her tears--looked up
+as though from a rain-splashed cellar window; but Fru Kaas had reverted
+to her abrupt manner, and as if from an upper storey the poor little
+woman heard, "What does your daughter want with my son?"
+
+"Tausend Mal um Verzeihung," but it had seemed to them that her
+daughter might go with them to Norway, Norway was such a free country.
+"Und die zwei Jungen haben sich so gern."
+
+"Has he promised her this?" said Fru Kaas, with haughty coldness.
+
+"Nein, nein, nein," was the frightened reply. They two, mother and
+daughter, had thought of it that day. They had read in the paper that
+the young Von Kas was going away. "Herr Gott in Himmel!" if her
+daughter could thus be rid at once of all her troubles! Frau von Kas
+had not an idea of what a faithful soul, what a tender wife her
+daughter was.
+
+Fru Kaas crossed hastily over to the opposite pavement. She did not go
+quite so fast as a person in chase of his hat, but it seemed to the
+poor little creature, left in the lurch, with folded hands and
+frightened eyes, that she had vanished faster than her hopes. On the
+other side of the waystood a pretty young flower-girl who was waiting
+for the elegant lady hurrying in her direction. "Bitte, gnadige Frau."
+Here is another, thought the hunted creature. She looked round for
+help, she flew up the street, away, away--when another lady popped up
+right in front of her, evidently trying to catch her eye. Fru Kaas
+dashed into the middle of the street and took refuge in a carriage.
+
+"Where to?" asked the driver.
+
+This she had not stopped to consider, but nevertheless answered boldly,
+"The Bavaria!"
+
+In point of fact she had had an idea of seeing the view of the city and
+its environs from "Bavaria's" lofty head before leaving. There were a
+great many people there, but Fru Kaas's turn to go up soon came; but
+just as she had reached the head of the giantess and was going to look
+out, she heard a lady whisper close behind her, "That is his mother."
+It was probable that there were several mothers up there in "Bavaria's"
+head beside Fru Kaas, nevertheless she gathered her skirts together and
+hurried down again.
+
+Rafael came home to dine with his mother; he was in the highest
+spirits--he had sold his patent. But he found her sitting in the
+farthest corner of the sofa, with her big binocular glass in her hand.
+When he spoke to her she did not answer, but turned the glass with the
+small end towards him; she wished him to look as far off as possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+It was a bright evening in the beginning of June that they disembarked
+from the steamer, and at once left the town in the boat which was to
+take them to Hellebergene. They did not know any of the boatmen,
+although they were from the estate; the boat also was new.
+
+But the islands among which they were soon rowing were the old ones,
+which had long awaited them and seemed to have swum out to meet them,
+and now to move one behind the other so that the boat might pass
+between them. Neither mother nor son spoke to the men, nor did they
+talk to each ether. In thus keeping silence they entered into each
+other's feelings, for they were both awestruck. It came upon them all
+at once. The bright evening light over sea and islands, the aromatic
+fragrance from the land,--the quick splash of a little coasting steamer
+as she passed them--nothing could cheer them.
+
+Their life lay there before them, bringing responsibilities both old
+and new. How would all that they were coming to look to them, and how
+far were they themselves now fitted for it?
+
+Now they had passed the narrow entrance of the bay, and rounded the
+last point beneath the crags of Hellebergene. The green expanse opened
+out before them, the buildings in its midst. The hillsides had once
+been crowned and darkly clad with luxuriant woods. Now they stood there
+denuded, shrunk, formless, spread over with a light green growth
+leaving some parts bare. The lowlands, as well as the hills which
+framed them, were shrunk and diminished, not in extent but in
+appearance. They could nut persuade themselves to look at it. They
+recalled it all as it had been and felt themselves despoiled.
+
+The buildings had been newly painted, but they looked small by contrast
+with those which they had in their minds. No one awaited them at the
+landing, but a few people stood about near the gallery, looking
+embarrassed--or were they suspicious? The travellers went into Fru
+Kaas's old rooms, both up stairs and down. These were just as they had
+left them, but how faded and wretched they looked! The table, which was
+laid for supper, was loaded with coarse food like that at a farmer's
+wedding.
+
+The old lime-trees were gone. Fru Kaas wept.
+
+Suddenly she was reminded of something. "Let us go across to the other
+wing," she said this as if there they would find what was wanting. In
+the gallery she took Rafael's arm; he grew curious. His father's old
+rooms had been entirely renovated for him. In everything, both great
+and small, he recognised his mother's designs and taste. A vast amount
+of work, unknown to him, an endless interchange of letters and a great
+expenditure of money. How new and bright everything looked! The rooms
+differed as much from what they had been, as she had endeavoured to
+make Rafael's life from the one that had been led in them.
+
+They two had a comfortable meal together after all, followed by a quiet
+walk along the shore. The wide waters of the bay gleamed softly, and
+the gentle ripple took up its old story again while the summer night
+sank gently down upon them.
+
+Early the next morning Rafael was out rowing in the bay, the
+play-ground of his childhood. Notwithstanding the shorn and sunken
+aspect of the hills, his delight at being there again was
+indescribable. Indescribable because of the loneliness and stillness:
+no one came to disturb him. After having lived for many years in large
+towns, to find oneself alone in a Norwegian bay is like leaving a noisy
+market-place at midday and passing into a high vaulted church where no
+sound penetrates from without, and where only one's own footstep breaks
+the silence. Holiness, purification, abstraction, devotion, but in such
+light and freedom as no church possesses. The lapse of time, the past
+were forgotten; it was as though he had never been away, as though no
+other place had ever known him.
+
+Indescribable, for the intensity of his feelings surpassed anything
+that he had hitherto known. New sensations, impressions of beauty
+absolutely forgotten since childhood, or remembered but imperfectly,
+crowded upon him, speaking to him like welcoming spirits.
+
+The altered contour of the hills, the dear familiar smell, the sky
+which seemed lower and yet farther off, the effects of light in colder
+tones, but paler and more delicate. Nowhere a broad plain, an endless
+expanse. No! all was diversified, full of contrast, broken; not lofty,
+still unique, fresh, he had almost said tumultuous.
+
+Each moment he felt more in accord with his memories, his nature was in
+harmony with it all.
+
+He paused between each stroke of the oars, soothed by the gentle
+motion; the boat glided on, he had not concerned himself whither, when
+he heard from behind the sound of oars which was not the echo of his
+own. The strokes succeeded each other at regular intervals. He turned.
+
+At that moment Fru Kaas came out on to the terrace with her big
+binocular. She had had her coffee, and was ready to enjoy the view over
+the bay, the islands, and the open sea. Rafael, she was told, had
+already gone out in the boat. Yes! there he was, far out. She put up
+her glass at the moment that a white painted boat shot out towards his
+brown one. The white one was rowed by a girl in a light-coloured dress.
+"Grand Dieu! are there girls here too?"
+
+Now Rafael ceases rowing, the girl does the same, they rest on their
+oars and the boats glide past each other. Fru Kaas could distinguish
+the girl's shapely neck under her dark hair, but her wide-brimmed straw
+hat hid her face.
+
+Rafael lets his oars trail along the water and resting on them looks at
+her, and now her oars also touch the water as she turns towards him. Do
+they know each other? Quickly the boats draw together; Rafael puts out
+his hand and draws them closer, and now he gives HER his hand. Fru Kaas
+can see Rafael's profile so plainly that she can detect the movement of
+his lips. He is laughing! The stranger's face is hidden by her hat, but
+she can see a full figure and a vigorous arm below the half-sleeve.
+They do not loose their hands; now he is laughing till his broad
+shoulders shake. What is it? What is it? Can any one have followed him
+from Munich? Fru Kaas could remain where she was no longer. She went
+indoors and put down the glass; she was overcome by anxiety, filled
+with helpless anger. It was some time before she could prevail on
+herself to go out and resume her walk. The girl had turned her boat.
+Now they are rowing in side by side, she as strongly as he. Whenever
+Fru Kaas looked at her son he was laughing and the girl's face was
+turned towards his. Now they head for the landing-place at the
+parsonage. Was it Helene? The only girl for miles round, and Rafael had
+hooked himself on to her the very first day that he was at home. These
+girls who can never see him without taking a fancy to him! Now the
+boats are beached, not on the shingle, where the stones would be
+slippery. No! on the sand, where they have run them up as high as
+possible. Now she jumps lightly and quickly out of her boat, and he a
+little more heavily out of his; they grasp each other's hands again.
+Yes! there they were.
+
+Fru Kaas turned away; she knew that for the moment she was nothing more
+than an old chattel pushed away into a corner.
+
+It was Helene. She knew that they had arrived and thought that she
+would row past the house; and thus it was that she had encountered
+Rafael, who had simply gone out to amuse himself.
+
+As they had lain on their oars and the boats glided silently past each
+other, he thought to himself, "That girl never grew up here, she is
+cast in too fine a mould for that; she is not in harmony with the
+place." He saw a face whose regular lines, and large grey eyes,
+harmonised well with each other, a quiet wise face, across which all at
+once there flew a roguish look. He knew it again. It had done him good
+before to-day. Our first thought in all recognitions, in all
+remembrances--that is to say, if there is occasion for it--is, has that
+which we recognise or recall done us good or evil?
+
+This large mouth, those honest eyes, which have a roguish look just
+now, had always, done him good.
+
+"Helene!" he cried, arresting the progress of his boat.
+
+"Rafael!" she answered, blushing crimson and checking her boat too.
+
+What a soft contralto voice!
+
+When he came in to breakfast, beaming, ready to tell everything, he was
+confronted by two large eyes, which said as plainly as possible, "Am I
+put on one side already?" He became absolutely angry. During breakfast
+she said, in a tone of indifference, that she was going to drive to the
+Dean's, to thank him for the supervision which he had given to the
+estate during all these years. He did not answer, from which she
+inferred that he did not wish to go with her. It was some time before
+she started. The harness was new, the stable-boy raw and untrained. She
+saw nothing more of Rafael.
+
+She was received at the parsonage with the greatest respect, and yet
+very heartily. The Dean was a fine old man and thoroughly practical.
+His wife was of profounder nature. Both protested that the care of the
+estate had been no trouble to them, it had only been a pleasant
+employment; Helene had now undertaken it.
+
+"Helene?"
+
+Yes; it had so chanced that the first bailiff at Hellebergene had once
+been agronomist and forester on a large concern which was in
+liquidation, Helene had taken such a fancy to him, that when she was
+not at school, she went with him everywhere; and, indeed, he was a
+wonderful old man. During these rambles she had learned all that he
+could teach her. He had an especial gift for forestry. It was a
+development for her, for it gave a fresh interest to her life. Little
+by little she had taken over the whole care of the estate. It absorbed
+her.
+
+Fru Kaas asked if she might see Helene, to thank her.
+
+"But Helene has just gone out with Rafael, has she not?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure," answered Fru Kaas. She would not show surprise; but
+she asked at once for her carriage.
+
+Meanwhile the two young people had determined to climb the ridge. At
+first they followed the course of the river, Helene leading the way. It
+was evident that she had grown up in the woods. How strong and supple
+she was, and how well she acquitted herself when she had to cross a
+brook, climb a wooded slope, force a way through a barrier of bristly
+young fir-trees which opposed her passage, or surmount a heap of clay
+at a quarry, of which there were a great many about there. Each
+difficulty was in turn overcome. The ascent from the river was the most
+direct and the pleasantest, which was the reason that they had come
+this way. Rafael would not be outdone by her, and kept close at her
+heels. But, great heavens! what it cost him. Partly because he was out
+of practice, partly--
+
+"It is a little difficult to get over here," she said. A tree had
+fallen during the last rainy weather, and hung half suspended by its
+roots, obstructing the path. "You must not hold by it, it might give
+way and drag us with it."
+
+At last there is something which she considers difficult, he thought.
+
+She deliberated for a moment before the farthest-spreading branches
+which had to be crossed; then, lifting her skirts to her knees, over
+them she went, and over the next ones as well, and then across the
+trunk to the farthest side, where there were no branches in the way;
+then obliquely up the hillside. She stood still at the top of the
+height and watched him crawl up after her.
+
+It cost him a struggle; he was out of breath and the perspiration
+poured off him. When he got up to her, everything swam before him; and
+although it was only for a fraction of a second, it left him fairly
+captivated by her strength.
+
+She stood and looked at him with bright, roguish eyes. She was flushed
+and hot, and her bosom rose and fell quickly; but there was no doubt
+that she could at once have taken an equally long and steep climb. He
+was not able to speak a word.
+
+"Now turn round and look at the sea," she said.
+
+The words affected him as though great Pan had uttered them from the
+mountains far behind. He turned his eyes towards them. It seemed as
+though Nature herself had spoken to him. The words caressed him as with
+a hand now cold, now warm, and he became a different being. For he had
+lost himself--lost himself in her as she walked along the river-bank
+and climbed the hillside. She seemed to draw fresh power from the
+woods, to grow taller, more agile, more vigorous. The fervour of her
+eyes, the richness of her voice, the grace of her movements, the
+glimpses of her soul, had allured him down there in the valley, beside
+the rushing river, and the feeling of loss of individuality had
+increased with the exertion and the excitement. No ball-room or
+play-ground, no gymnasium or riding-school can display the physical
+powers, and the spirit which underlies them, the unity of mind and
+body, as does the scaling of steep hills and rocky slopes. At last,
+intoxicated by these feelings, he thought to himself--I am climbing
+after her, climbing to the highest pinnacle of happiness. Up there! Up
+there! The composure of her manner towards him, her freedom from
+embarrassment, maddened him. Up there! Up there! And ever as they
+mounted she became more spirited, he more distressed. Up there! Up
+there! His eyes grew dim, for a few seconds he could not move, could
+not speak. Then she had said, "Now you must look at the sea."
+
+He seemed to see with different eyes, to be endowed with new
+sensations, and these new sensations gave answer to what the distant
+mountains had said. They answered the sea out there before him, the
+island-studded sea, the open sea beyond, the wide swelling ocean, the
+desires and destinies of life all the world over. The sea lay
+steel-bright beneath the suffused sunlight, and seemed to gaze on the
+rugged land as on a beloved child instinct with vital power. Cling thou
+to the mighty one, or thy strength will be thine undoing!
+
+And many of the inventions which he had dreamed of loomed vaguely
+before him. They lay outside there. It depended on him whether he
+should one day bring them safely into port.
+
+"What are you thinking about?" said she, the sound of her voice put
+these thoughts to flight and recalled him to the present. He felt how
+full and rich her contralto voice was, A moment ago he could have told
+her this, and more besides, as an introduction to still more. Now he
+sat down without answering, and she did the same.
+
+"I come up here very often," she said, "to look at the sea. From here
+it seems the source of life and death; down there it is a mere
+highway." He smiled. She continued: "The sea has this power, that
+whatever pre-occupation one may bring up here, it vanishes in a moment;
+but down below it remains with one."
+
+He looked at her.
+
+"Yes, it is true," said she, and coloured.
+
+"I do not in the least doubt it," he replied.
+
+But she did not continue the subject. "You are looking at the saplings,
+I see."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You must know that last year there was a long drought; almost all the
+young trees up here withered away, and in other places on the hillsides
+also, as you see." She pointed as she spoke. "It looks so ugly as one
+comes into the bay. I thought about that yesterday. I thought also that
+you should not be here long before you saw that you had done us an
+injustice, for could anything be prettier than that little fir-tree
+down there in the hollow? just look at its colour; that is a healthy
+fellow! and these sturdy saplings, and that little gem there!" The
+tones of Helene's voice betrayed the interest which she felt. "But how
+that one over there has grown." She scrambled across to it, and he
+after her. "Do you see? two branches already; and what branches!" They
+knelt down beside it. "This boy has had parents of whom he can boast,
+for they have all had just as much and just as little shelter. Oh! the
+disgusting caterpillars." She was down before the little tree at the
+side which was being spun over. She cleared it, and got up to fetch
+some wet mould, which she laid carefully round the sprouts. "Poor thing
+I it wants water, although it rained tremendously a little time ago."
+
+"Are you often up here?" he asked.
+
+"It would all come to nothing if I were not!" She looked at him
+searchingly. "You do not, perhaps, believe that this little tree knows
+me; every one of them, indeed. If I am long away from them they do not
+thrive, but when I am often with them they flourish." She was on her
+knees, supporting herself with one hand, while with the other she
+pulled up some grass. "The thieves," said she, "which want to rob my
+saplings."
+
+If it had been a little person who had said this; a little person with
+lively eyes and a merry mouth--but Helene was tall and stately; her
+eyes were not lively, but met one with a steady gaze. Her mouth was
+large, and gave deliberate utterance to her thoughts.
+
+Whoever has read Helene's words quickly, hurriedly, must read them over
+again. She spoke quietly and thoughtfully, each syllable distinct and
+musical. She was not the same girl who had led the way by river and
+hill. Then she seemed to glory in her strength; now her energy had
+changed to delicate feeling.
+
+One of the most remarkable women in Scandinavia, who also had these two
+sides to her character, and made the fullest use of both, Johanne Luise
+Hejberg, once saw Helene when she had but just attained to womanhood.
+She could not take her eyes off her; she never tired of watching her
+and listening to her. Did the aged woman, then at the close of her
+life, recognise anything of her own youth in the girl? Outwardly too
+they resembled each other. Helene was dark, as Fru Hejberg had been;
+was about the same height, with the same figure, but stronger; had a
+large mouth, large grey eyes like hers, into which the same roguish
+look would start. But the greatest likeness was to be found in their
+natures: in Fru Hejberg's expression when she was quiet and serious; in
+a certain motherliness which was the salient feature in her nature.
+
+"What a healthy girl!" said she; bade some one bring Helene to her, and
+drawing her towards her, kissed her on the forehead.
+
+Helene and her companion had crossed to the other side of the hill, for
+he positively must see the "Buckthorn Swamp"; but when they got down
+there he did not know it again: it was covered by luxuriant woods.
+
+"Yes! It is old Helgesen who deserves the credit of that," she said.
+"He noticed that an artificial embankment had converted this great flat
+into a swamp, so he cut through it. I was only a child then, but I had
+my share in it. They gave me a bit of ground down by the river to plant
+Kohl Kabi in. I looked after it the whole summer. Later on I had a
+larger piece. With the profits we cut ditches up to here. In the fourth
+year we bought plants. In fact, he so arranged it, that I paid for it
+all with my work, the old rogue!"
+
+When Rafael got home his mother was at table: she had not waited for
+him, a sure sign that she felt aggrieved. No attempts on his part to
+set things right succeeded. She would not answer, and soon left the
+room. It now struck him how pleasant it would have been for his mother
+if he had taken her with him to explore and make acquaintance with this
+new Hellebergene. The evening before, in his father's rooms, it had
+seemed as though nothing could ever separate them--and the first thing
+in the morning he was off with some one else. This evening he knew that
+nothing could be done, but next morning he begged her earnestly to come
+with them, and they would show her what he had seen the day before; but
+she only shook her head and took up a book. Day after day he made a
+similar request, but always with the same result. She thought that
+these invitations were merely formal, and so, from one point of view,
+they were. He was most ready to appease her, most ready to show her
+everything, for he felt himself to blame, though he certainly thought
+that she might have understood; but her presence would have marred
+their tete-a-tete; he would have been embarrassed enough if she had
+acquiesced!
+
+The Dean, with his wife and daughter, came the following Sunday to
+return Fru Kaas's visit. She was politeness itself, and specially
+thanked Helene for her care of Hellebergene. Helene coloured without
+knowing why, but when Rafael also coloured, she blushed still deeper.
+This was the event of the visit; nothing else of importance occurred.
+
+In their daily walks through the fields and woods, the two young people
+soon exhausted the topic of Hellebergene. He took up another theme. His
+inventions became the topic of conversation. He had acquired, from his
+studies with his mother, an unusual facility in explaining his meaning,
+and in Helene he found a listener such as he had rarely before met
+with. She was sufficiently acquainted with the laws of nature to
+understand a simple description. But all the same it was not his
+inventions but himself that he discoursed on. He quite realised this,
+and became all the more eager. Her eyes made his reasoning clearer. He
+had never before had such complete faith in himself as when near her,
+and now no misgivings succeeded.
+
+Helene, however, had not hitherto known the direction and results of
+his studies. He was an engineer, that was all that she had heard on the
+subject. When he had told her more about it he rose considerably in her
+estimation. It was SHE now who began to feel constrained. At first she
+did not understand why she felt obliged to put more restraint upon
+herself. After a time she began to excuse herself from joining him, and
+their walks became more rare. "She had so much to do now."
+
+He did not comprehend the reason of this; he fancied that his mother
+might be to blame (which, by the way, was quite a mistake), and he grew
+angry. He was already greatly affronted that his mother had chosen to
+confound his former gallantries with his present attachment. He quite
+forgot that at first he had merely sought to amuse himself here as
+elsewhere. He gave himself up entirely to his passion, which would
+brook no hindrance, no opposition; it became majestic. In Helene he had
+found his future life.
+
+But her parents had grown less cordial of late owing to Fru Kaas's
+coldness, and the time came when all attempts to obtain meetings with
+Helene failed. He had never been so infatuated. He seemed to see her
+continually before him--her luxuriant beauty, her light step, her grey
+eyes gazing steadfastly into his.
+
+Why could they not be married to-morrow or the next day? What could be
+more natural? What could more certainly help him forward?
+
+The constraint between his mother and himself had reached a greater
+pitch than ever before. He thought seriously of leaving her and the
+country. He still had some money left, the proceeds of the patent, and
+he could easily make more. How irksome it became to him to go into the
+fields and woods without Helene! He could not study; he had no one to
+talk to; what should he do?
+
+Devote himself to boating!--row out far beyond the bay, right up to the
+town! One day, as he rowed along the coast, beyond the bay, he noticed
+that the clay and flag-stone formation in the hills and ridges was
+speckled with grey. Helene had told him how extraordinary it looked out
+there now that the trees were gone, but as they would have had to come
+out in the boat to see it he had let the remark pass. Now he decided to
+land there. The shore rose steeply from the water, but he scrambled up.
+He had expected to find limestone, but he could hardly believe his own
+eyes: it was cement stone! Absolutely, undoubtedly, cement stone! How
+far did it extend? As far as he could see; it might even extend to the
+boundary of the estate. In any case, here was sufficient for extensive
+works for many, many years, if only there were enough silica with the
+clay and lime. He had soon knocked off a few pieces, which he put into
+the boat, and set out for home to analyse them.
+
+Seldom had any one rowed faster than he did; now he shot past the
+islands into the bay, up to the landing-place before the house. If the
+cement stone contained the right proportions, here was what would make
+Helene and himself independent of every one; AND THAT AT ONCE!
+
+A little later, with dirty hands and clothes, his face bathed in
+perspiration, he rushed up to his mother with the result of his
+investigations.
+
+"Here is something for you to see."
+
+She was reading; she looked up and turned as white as a sheet.
+
+"Is that the cement stone?" she asked, as she put down her book.
+
+"Did you know about it?" he exclaimed, in the greatest astonishment.
+
+"Good gracious, yes," she answered. She walked across to the window,
+came back again, pressing her hands together. "So you have found it
+too?"
+
+"Who did before me?"
+
+"Your father, Rafael, your father, the first time that I was here, a
+little time before we were to leave." She paused. "He came rushing in
+as you did just now--not so quickly, not so quickly, he was weak in the
+legs, but otherwise just like you." She let her eyes rest, with a
+peculiar look, on Rafael's dirty hands. The hands themselves were not
+well shaped, they were almost exactly his father's.
+
+Rafael noticed nothing.
+
+"Had HE found the bed of cement stone, then?"
+
+"Yes. He locked the door behind him. I got up from my chair and asked
+him how he dared? He could hardly speak." She paused for a moment,
+recalling it all again. "Yes, and it was THAT stuff."
+
+"What did he say, mother?"
+
+She had turned to leave the room.
+
+"Your father believed that I had brought luck to the house."
+
+"And why was it not so, then?"
+
+She faced him quickly. He coloured.
+
+"Pardon, mother, you misunderstood me. I meant, why did it come to
+nothing about the cement?"
+
+"You did not know your father: there were too many hooks about him for
+him to be able to carry out anything."
+
+"Hooks?"
+
+"Yes! eccentricity, egotism, passion, which caught fast in everything."
+
+"What did he propose to do?"
+
+"No one was to be allowed to have anything to do with it, no one was to
+know of it, he was to be everything! For this reason the timber was to
+be cut down and sold; and when we were married--I say when we were
+married, the whole of my fortune was to be used as well."
+
+He saw the horror with which she still regarded it; she was passing
+through the whole struggle again; and he understood that he must not
+question her further. She made a gesture with her hand; and he asked
+hurriedly, "Why did you not tell me before, mother?"
+
+"Because it would have brought you no good," she answered decidedly.
+
+He felt, nay, he saw that she believed that it would bring him no good
+now. She again raised her hand, and he left her.
+
+When he was once more in the boat, taking his great news to the
+parsonage, he thought to himself, Here is the reason of my father's and
+mother's deadly enmity.
+
+The cement stone! She did not trust him, she would not give him both
+herself and her fortune, so there was no cement, nor were any trees
+felled.
+
+"Well, he scored after all. Yes, and mother too; but God help ME!"
+
+Then he reckoned up what the timber and the fortune together would have
+been worth, and what further sum could have been raised on the
+property, the value of the cement-bed being taken into consideration.
+He understood his father better than his mother. What a fortune, what
+power, what magnificence, what a life!
+
+At the parsonage he carried every one with him.
+
+The Dean, because he saw at once what this was worth. "You are a rich
+man now," he said. The Dean's wife, because she felt attracted by his
+ability and enthusiasm. Helene? Helene was silent and frightened. He
+turned towards her and asked if she would come with him in the boat to
+see it. She really must see how extensive the bed was.
+
+"Yes, dear, go with him," said her father.
+
+Rafael wished to sit behind her in the boat and hastened towards the
+bow; but, without a word, she passed him, sat down, and took her oars;
+so, after all, he had to sit in front of her.
+
+They thus began at cross purposes. His back was towards her, he saw how
+the water foamed under her oars, there was a secret struggle, a tacit
+fear, which was heard in the few words which they exchanged, and which
+merely increased their constraint.
+
+When they drew near to their destination they were flushed and hot. Now
+he was obliged to turn round to look for the place of landing. To begin
+with, they went slowly along the whole cement-bed as far as it was
+visible. He was now turned so as to face her, and he explained it all
+to her. She kept her eyes fixed on the cliff, and only glanced at him,
+or did not look at him all. They turned the boat again, in order to
+land at the place where he intended the factory to stand. A portion of
+the rock would have to be blasted to make room, the harbour too must be
+made safer so that vessels might lie close in, and all this would cost
+money.
+
+He landed first in order to help her, but she jumped on shore without
+his assistance; then they climbed upwards, he leading the way,
+explaining everything as he went; she following with eyes and ears
+intent.
+
+All for which, from her childhood, she had worked so hard at
+Hellebergene, and all which she had dreamed of for the estate, had
+become so little now. It would be many years before the trees yielded
+any return. But here was promise of immediate prosperity and future
+wealth if, as she never doubted, he proved to be correct. She felt that
+this humbled her, made her of no account, but ah! how great it made him
+seem!
+
+The rowing, the climbing, the excitement, gave animation to Rafael's
+explanations; face and figure showed his state of tension. She felt
+almost giddy: should she return to the boat and row away alone? But she
+was too proud thus to betray herself.
+
+It seemed to her that there was the look of a conqueror in his eyes;
+but she did not intend to be conquered. Neither did she wish to appear
+as the one who had remained at home and speculated on his return. That
+would be simply to turn all that was most cherished, most unselfish in
+her life, against herself. Something in him frightened her, something
+which, perhaps, he himself could not master--his inward agitation. It
+was not boisterous or terrifying; it was glowing, earnest zeal, which
+seemed to deprive him of power and her of will, and this she would not
+endure.
+
+Hardly had they gained the summit from which they could look out over
+the islands to the open sea, and across to Hellebergene, to the
+parsonage, and the river flowing into the inner bay, than he turned
+away from it all towards her, as she stood with heaving breast, glowing
+cheeks, and eyes which dare not turn away from the sea.
+
+"Helene," he whispered, approaching her; he wished to take her in his
+arms.
+
+She trembled, although she did not turn round; the next moment she
+sprang away from him, and did not pause till she had got down to the
+boat, which she was about to push off, but bethought herself that it
+would be too cowardly, so she remained standing and watched him come
+after her.
+
+"Helene," he called from above, "why do you run away from me?"
+
+"Rafael, you must not," she answered when he rejoined her. The
+strongest accent of both prayer and command of which a powerful nature
+is capable sounded in her words. She in the boat, he on the shore; they
+eyed one another like two antagonists, watchful and breathing hard,
+till he loosed the boat, stepped in and pushed off.
+
+She took her seat; but before doing the same he said:
+
+"You know quite well what I wanted to say to you." He spoke with
+difficulty.
+
+She did not answer and got out her oars; her tears were ready to flow.
+They rowed home again more slowly than they had come.
+
+A lark hovered over their heads. The note of a thrush was heard away
+inland. A guillemot skimmed over the water in the same direction as
+their own, and a tern on curved wing screamed in their wake. There was
+a sense of expectation over all. The scent of the young fir-trees and
+the heather was wafted out to them; farther in lay the flowery meadows
+of Hellebergene. At a great distance an eagle could be seen, high in
+air, winging his way from the mountains, followed by a flock of
+screaming crows, who imagined that they were chasing him. Rafael drew
+Helene's attention to them.
+
+"Yes, look at them," she said; and these few words, spoken naturally,
+helped to put both more at their ease. He looked round at her and
+smiled, and she smiled back at him. He felt in the seventh heaven of
+delight, but it must not be spoken. But the oars seemed to repeat in
+measured cadence, "It--is--she. It--is--she. It--is--she." He said to
+himself, Is not her resistance a thousand times sweeter than--
+
+"It is strange that the sea birds no longer breed on the islands in
+here," he said.
+
+"That is because for a long time the birds have not been protected;
+they have gone farther out."
+
+"They must be protected again: we must manage to bring the birds back,
+must we not?"
+
+"Yes," she answered.
+
+He turned quickly towards her. Perhaps she should not have said that,
+she thought, for had he not said "we"?
+
+To show how far she was from such a thought, she looked towards the
+land. "The clover is not good this year."
+
+"No. What shall you do with the plot next year?"
+
+But she did not fall into the trap. He turned round, but she looked
+away.
+
+Now the rush of the river tossed them up and down in a giddy dance, as
+the force of the stream met the boat. Rafael looked up to where they
+had walked together the first day. He turned to see if she were not, by
+chance, looking in the same direction. Yes, she was!
+
+They rowed on towards the landing-place at the parsonage, and he spoke
+once or twice, but she had learned that that was dangerous. They
+reached the beach.
+
+"Helene!" said he, as she jumped on shore with a good-bye in passing,
+"Helene!" But she did not stay. "Helene!" he shouted, with such meaning
+in it that she turned.
+
+She looked at him, but only remained for a moment. No more was needed!
+He rowed home like the greatest conqueror that those waters had ever
+seen. Ever since the Vikings had met together in the innermost creek,
+and left behind them the barrow which is still to be seen near the
+parsonage--yes, ever since the elk of the primaeval forest, with mighty
+antlers, swam away from the doe which he had won in combat, to the
+other which he heard on the opposite shore. Since the first swarm of
+ants, like a waving fan, danced up and down in the sunlight, on its one
+day of flight. Since the first seals struggled against each other to
+reach the one whom they saw lie sunning herself on the rocks.
+
+Fru Kaas had seen them pass as they rowed out at a furious pace. She
+had seen them row slowly back, and she understood everything. No sooner
+had the cement stone been found than--
+
+She paced up and down; she wept.
+
+She did not put any dependence on his constancy; in any case it was too
+early for Rafael to settle himself here: he had something very
+different before him. The cement stone would not run away from him, or
+the girl either, if there were anything serious in it. She regarded his
+meeting with Helene as merely an obstacle in the way, which barred his
+further progress.
+
+Rafael rowed towards home, bending to his oars till the water foamed
+under the bow of his boat. Now he has landed; now he drags the boat up
+as if she were an eel-pot. Now he strides quickly up to the house.
+
+Frightened, despairing, his mother shrank into the farthest corner of
+the sofa, with her feet drawn up under her, and, as he burst in through
+the door and began to speak, she cried out: "Taisez-vous! des egards,
+s'il vous plait." She stretched out her arms before her as if for
+protection. But now he came, borne on the wings of love and happiness.
+His future was there.
+
+He did what he had never done before: went straight up to her, drew her
+arms down, embraced and kissed her, first on the forehead, then on the
+cheeks, eyes, mouth, ears, neck, wherever he could; all without a word.
+
+He was quite beside himself.
+
+"Mad boy," she gasped; "des egards, mais Rafael, donc!--Que--" And she
+threw herself on his breast with her arms round his neck.
+
+"Now you will forsake me, Rafael," she said, crying.
+
+"Forsake you, mother! No one can unite the two wings like Helene."
+
+And now he began a panegyric on her, without measure, and unconscious
+that he said the same thing over and over again. When he became
+quieter, and she was permitted to breathe, she begged to be alone: she
+was used to being alone. In the evening she came down to him, and said
+that, first of all, they ought to go to Christiania, and find an expert
+to examine the cement-bed and learn what further should be done. Her
+cousin, the Government Secretary, would be able to advise them, and
+some of her other relations as well. Most of them were engineers and
+men of business. He was reluctant to leave Hellebergene just now, he
+said, she must understand that; besides, they had agreed not to go away
+until the autumn. But she maintained that this was the surest way to
+win Helene; only she begged that, with regard to her, things should
+remain as they were till they had been to Christiania. On this point
+she was inflexible, and it was so arranged.
+
+As was their custom, they packed up at once. They drove over to the
+parsonage that same evening to say good-bye. They were all very merry
+there: on Fru Kaas's side because she was uneasy, and wished to conceal
+the fact by an appearance of liveliness; on the Dean's part because he
+really was in high spirits at the discovery which promised prosperity
+both to Hellebergene and the district; on his wife's because she
+suspected something. The most hearty good wishes were therefore
+expressed for their journey.
+
+Rafael had availed himself of the general preoccupation to exchange a
+few last words with Helene in a corner. He obtained a half-promise from
+her that when he wrote she would answer; but he was careful not to say
+that he had spoken to his mother. He felt that Helene would be startled
+by a proceeding which came quite naturally to him.
+
+As they drove away, he waved his hat as long as they remained in sight.
+The waving was returned, first by all, but finally by only one.
+
+The summer evening was light and warm, but not light enough, not warm
+enough, not wide enough; there did not seem room enough in it for him;
+it was not bright enough to reflect his happiness. He could not sleep,
+yet he did not wish to talk; companionship or solitude were alike
+distasteful to him. He thought seriously of walking or rowing over to
+the parsonage again and knocking at the window of Helene's room. He
+actually went down to the boathouse and got out the boat. But perhaps
+it would frighten her, and possibly injure his own cause. So he rowed
+out and out to the farthest islands, and there he frightened the birds.
+At his approach they rose: first a few, then many, then all protested
+in a hideous chorus of wild screams. He was enveloped in an angry
+crowd, a pandemonium of birds. But it did not ruffle his good humour.
+"Wait a bit," he said to them. "Wait a bit, until the islands at
+Hellebergene are 'protected,' and the whole estate as well. Then you
+shall come and be happy with us. Good-bye till then!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+He came to Christiania like a tall ship gay with flags. His love was
+the music on board.
+
+His numerous relations were ready to receive him. Of these many were
+engineers, who were a jour with all his writings, which they had taken
+care should be well known. Some of the largest mechanical undertakings
+in the country were in their hands, so that they had connections in
+every direction.
+
+Once more the family had a genius in its midst; that is to say, one to
+make a show with. Rafael went from entertainment to entertainment, from
+presentation to presentation, and wherever he or his mother went court
+was paid to them.
+
+In all this the ladies of the family were even more active than their
+lords; and they had not been in the town many days before every one
+knew that they were to be the rage.
+
+There are some people who always will hold aloof. They are as
+irresponsive as a sooty kettle when you strike it. They are like
+peevish children who say "I won't," or surly old dogs who growl at
+every one. But HE was so exceedingly genial, a capital fellow with the
+highest spirits. He had looks as well; he was six feet high; and all
+those six feet were clothed in perfect taste. He had large flashing
+eyes and a broad forehead. He was practised in making clear to others
+all in which he was interested, and at such times how handsome he
+looked! He was a thorough man of the world, able to converse in several
+languages at the cosmopolitan dinners which were a speciality of the
+Ravns. He was the owner of one of the few extensive estates in Norway,
+and had the control, it was said, of a considerable fortune besides.
+
+The half of this would have been enough to set all tongues wagging;
+therefore, first the family, then their friends, then the whole town
+feted him. He was a nine days' wonder! One must know the critical,
+unimaginative natives of Christiania, who daily pick each other to
+pieces to fill the void in their existences; one must have admired
+their endless worrying of threadbare topics to understand what it must
+be when they got hold of a fresh theme.
+
+Nothing which flies before the storm is more dangerous than desert
+sand, nothing can surpass a Christiania FUROR.
+
+When it became known that two of his relations who were conversant with
+the subject, together with a distinguished geologist and a
+superintendent of mines, had been down to Hellebergene with Rafael, and
+had found that his statements were well grounded, he was captured and
+borne off in triumph twenty times a day. It was trying work, but HE was
+always in the vein, and ready to take the rough with the smooth. In all
+respects the young madcap was up to the standard, so that day and night
+passed in a ceaseless whirl, which left every one but himself
+breathless. The glorious month at Hellebergene had done good. He was
+drawn into endless jovial adventures, so strange, so audacious, that
+one would have staked one's existence that such things were impossible
+in Christiania. But great dryness begets thirst. He was in the humour
+of a boy who has got possession of a jam-pot, whose mouth, nose, and
+hands are all besmirched. It is thus that ladies like children best;
+then they are the sweetest things in the world.
+
+Like a tall, full-grown mountain-ash covered by a flock of starlings,
+he was the centre of a fluttering crowd. It only remained for him to be
+deified, and this too came to pass. One day he visited several
+factories, giving a hint here, another there (he had great practical
+knowledge and a quick eye) and every hint was of value.
+
+At last in a factory of something the same description as the one in
+France where he had been the means of economising half the motive
+power, he suggested a similar plan; he saw on the spot how it could be
+effected. This became the subject of much conversation. It grew and
+grew, it rose like the sea after days of westerly gales. This new
+genius, but little over twenty, would surely some day be the wonder of
+the country. It soon became the fashion for every manufacturer to
+invite him to visit his factory, and it was only after they were
+convinced that they had a god among them that it became serious, for
+enthusiasm in a manufacturer strikes every one. The ladies only waited
+for this important moment to go at a bound from the lowest degree of
+sense to the fifth degree of madness. Their eyes danced on him like
+sunlight on polished metal. He himself paid little heed to degree or
+temperature; he was too happy in his genial contentment, and too
+indifferent as well. One thing which greatly helped to bring him to the
+right pitch was the family temperament, for it was so like his own. He
+was a Ravn through and through, with perhaps a little grain of Kaas
+added. He was what they called pure Ravn, quite unalloyed. He seemed to
+them to have come straight from the fountain-head of their race,
+endowed with its primitive strength. This strong physical attribute had
+perhaps made his abilities more fertile, but the family claimed the
+abilities, too, as their own.
+
+Through Hans Ravn, Rafael had learned to value the companionship of his
+relations; now he had it in perfection. For every word that he said
+appreciative laughter was ready--it really sparkled round him. When he
+disagreed with prevailing tastes, prejudices, and morals, they
+disagreed too. When his precocious intelligence burst upon them, they
+were always ready to applaud. They even met him half-way--they could
+foresee the direction of his thoughts. As he was young in years and
+disposition, and at the same time knew more than most young people, he
+suited both old and young. Ah! how he prospered in Norway!
+
+His mother went with him everywhere. Her life had at one time appeared
+to her relations to be most objectless, but how much she had made of
+it! They respected her persevering efforts to attain the goal, and she
+became aware of this. In the most elegant toilettes, with her discreet
+manner and distinguished deportment, she was hurried from party to
+party, from excursion to excursion, until it became too much for her.
+
+It went too far, too; her taste was offended by it; she grew
+frightened. But the train of dissipation went on without her, like a
+string of carriages which bore him along with it while she was shaken
+off. Her eyes followed the cloud of dust far away, and the roll of the
+wheels echoed back to her.
+
+Helene--how about Helene? Was she too out in the cold? Far from it.
+Rafael was as certain that she was with him as that his gold watch was
+next his heart. The very first day that he arrived he wrote a letter to
+her. It was not long, he had not time for that, but it was thoroughly
+characteristic. He received an answer at once; the hostess of the
+pension brought it to him herself. He was so immensely delighted that
+the lady, who was related to the Dean and who had noticed the post
+mark, divined the whole affair--a thing which amused him greatly.
+
+But Helene's letter was evasive; she evidently knew him too little to
+dare to speak out.
+
+He never found time to draw the hostess into conversation on the
+subject, however. He came home late, he got up late, and then there
+were always friends waiting for him; so that he was not seen in the
+pension again until he returned to dress for dinner, during which time
+the carriage waited at the door, for he never got home till the last
+moment.
+
+When could he write? It would soon all be done with, and then home to
+Helene!
+
+The business respecting the cement detained him longer than he had
+anticipated. His mother made complications; not that she opposed the
+formation of a company, but she raised many difficulties: she should
+certainly prefer to have the whole affair postponed. He had no time to
+talk her round, besides, she irritated him. He told it to the hostess.
+
+A curious being, this hostess, who directed the pension, the business
+of the inmates, and a number of children, without apparent effort. She
+was a widow; two of her children were nearly twenty, but she looked
+scarcely thirty. Tall, dark, clever, with eyes like glowing coals;
+decided, ready in conversation as in business, like an officer long
+used to command, always trusted, always obeyed; one yielded oneself
+involuntarily to her matter-of-course way of arranging everything, and
+she was obliging, even self-sacrificing, to those she liked--it was
+true that that was not everybody. This absence of reserve was
+especially characteristic of her, and was another reason why all relied
+on her. She had long ago taken up Fru Kaas--entertained her first and
+foremost. Angelika Nagel used in conversation modern Christiania slang
+which is the latest development of the language. In the choice of
+expressions, words such as hideous were applied to what was the very
+opposite of hideous, such as "hideously amusing," "hideously handsome."
+"Snapping" to anything that was liquid, as "snapping good punch." One
+did not say "PRETTY" but "quite too pretty" or "hugely pretty." On the
+other hand, one did not say "bad" for anything serious, but with
+comical moderation "baddish." Anything that there was much of went by
+miles; for instance, "miles of virtue." This slipshod style of talk,
+which the idlers of large towns affect, had just become the fashion in
+Christiania. All this seemed new and characteristic to the careless
+emancipated party which had arisen as a protest against the prudery
+which Fru Kaas, in her time, had combated. The type therefore amused
+her:--she studied it.
+
+Angelika Nagel relieved her of all her business cares, which were only
+play to her. It was the same thing with the question of the cement
+undertaking. In an apparently careless manner she let drop what had
+been said and done about it, which had its effect on Fru Kaas. Soon
+things had progressed so far that it became necessary to consult Rafael
+about it, and as he was difficult to catch, she sat up for him at
+night. The first time that she opened the door for him he was
+absolutely shy, and when he heard what she wanted him for he was above
+measure grateful. The next time he kissed her! She laughed and ran away
+without speaking to him--that was all he got for his pains. But he had
+held her in his arms, and he glowed with a suddenly awakened passion.
+
+She, in the meantime, kept out of his way, even during the day he never
+saw her unless he sought her. But when he least expected it she again
+met him at the door; there was something which she really MUST say to
+him. There was a struggle, but at last she twisted herself away from
+him and disappeared. He whispered after her as loud as he dared, "Then
+I shall go away!"
+
+But while he was undressing she slipped into his room.
+
+The next day, before he was quite awake, the postman brought him the
+warrant for a post-office order for fifteen thousand francs. He thought
+that there must be a mistake in the name, or else that it was a
+commission that had been entrusted to him. No! it was from the French
+manufacturer whose working expenses he had reduced so greatly. He
+permitted himself, he wrote, to send this as a modest honorarium. He
+had not been able to do so sooner, but now hoped that it would not end
+there. He awaited Rafael's acknowledgment with great anxiety, as he was
+not sure of his address.
+
+Rafael was up and dressed in a trice. He told his news to every one,
+ran down to his mother and up again; but he had not been a moment alone
+before the superabundance of happiness and sense of victory frightened
+him. Now there must be an end of all this, now he would go home. He had
+not had the slightest prickings of conscience, the slightest longings,
+until now; all at once they were uncontrollable. SHE stood upon the
+hilltop, pure and noble. It became agonising. He must go at once, or it
+would drive him mad. This anxiety was made less acute by the sight of
+his mother's sincere pleasure. She came up to him when she heard that
+he had shut himself into his room. They had a really comfortable talk
+together--finally about the state of their finances. They lived in the
+pension because they could no longer afford to live in an hotel. The
+estate would bring nothing in until the timber once more became
+profitable, and her capital was no longer intact--notwithstanding the
+prohibition. Now she was ready to let him arrange about the cement
+company. On this he went out into the town, where his court soon
+gathered round him.
+
+But the large sum of money which was required could not be raised in a
+day, so the affair dragged on. He grew impatient, he must and would go;
+and finally his mother induced her cousin, the Government Secretary, to
+form the company, and they prepared to leave. They paid farewell visits
+to some of their friends, and sent cards and messages of thanks to the
+rest. Everything was ready, the very day had come, when Rafael, before
+he was up, received a letter from the Dean.
+
+An anonymous letter from Christiania, he wrote, had drawn his attention
+to Rafael's manner of life there, and he had in consequence obtained
+further information, the result being that he was, that day, sending
+his daughter abroad. There was nothing more in the letter. But Rafael
+could guess what had passed between father and daughter.
+
+He dressed himself and rushed down to his mother. His indignation
+against the rascally creatures who had ruined his and Helene's
+future--"Who could it have been?"--was equalled by his despair. She was
+the only one he cared for; all the others might go to the deuce. He
+felt angry, too, that the Dean, or any one else, should have dared to
+treat him in this way, to dismiss him like a servant, not to speak to
+him, not to put him in a position to speak for himself.
+
+His mother had read the letter calmly, and now she listened to him
+calmly, and when he became still more furious she burst out laughing.
+It was not their habit to settle their differences by words; but this
+time it flashed into his mind that she had not persuaded him to come
+here merely on account of the cement, but in order to separate him from
+Helene, and this he said to her.
+
+"Yes," he added, "now it will be just the same with me as it was with
+my father, and it will be your fault this time as well." With this he
+went out.
+
+Fru Kaas left Christiania shortly afterwards, and he left the same
+evening--for France.
+
+From France he wrote the most pressing letter to the Dean, begging him
+to allow Helene to return home, so that they could be married at once.
+Whatever the Dean had heard about his life in Christiania had nothing
+to do with the feelings which he nourished for Helene. She, and she
+alone, had the power to bind him; he would remain hers for life.
+
+The Dean did not answer him.
+
+A month later he wrote again, acknowledging this time that he had
+behaved foolishly. He had been merely thoughtless. He had been led on
+by other things. The details were deceptive, but he swore that this
+should be the end of it all. He would show that he deserved to be
+trusted; nay, he HAD shown it ever since he left Christiania. He begged
+the Dean to be magnanimous. This was practically exile for him, for he
+could not return to Hellebergene without Helene. Everything which he
+loved there had become consecrated by her presence; every project which
+he had formed they had planned together; in fact, his whole future--He
+fretted and pined till he found it impossible to work as seriously as
+he wished to do.
+
+This time he received an answer--a brief one.
+
+The Dean wrote that only a lengthened probation could convince them of
+the sincerity of his purpose.
+
+So it was not to be home, then, and not work; at all events, not work
+of any value. He knew his mother too well to doubt that now the cement
+business was shelved, whether the company were formed or not--he was
+only too sure of that.
+
+He had written to his mother, begging earnestly to be forgiven for what
+he had said. She must know that it was only the heat of the moment. She
+must know how fond he was of her, and how unhappy he felt at being in
+discord with her on the subject which was, and always would be, most
+dear to him.
+
+She answered him prettily and at some length, without a word about what
+had happened or about Helene. She gave him a great deal of news, among
+other things what the Dean intended to do about the estate.
+
+From this he concluded that she was on the same terms with the Dean as
+before. Perhaps his latest reasons for deferring the affair was
+precisely this: that he saw that Fru Kaas did not interest herself for
+it.
+
+It wore on towards the autumn. All this uncertainty made him feel
+lonely, and his thoughts turned towards his friends at Christiania. He
+wrote to tell them that he intended to make towards home. He meant,
+however, to remain a little time at Copenhagen.
+
+At Copenhagen he met Angelika Nagel again. She was in company with two
+of his student friends. She was in the highest spirits, glowing with
+health and beauty, and with that jaunty assurance which turns the heads
+of young men.
+
+He had, during all this time, banished the subject of his intrigue from
+his mind, and he came there without the least intention of renewing it;
+but now, for the first time in his life, he became jealous!
+
+It was quite a novel feeling, and he was not prepared to resist it. He
+grew jealous if he so much as saw her in company with either of the
+young men. She had a hearty outspoken manner, which rekindled his
+former passion.
+
+Now a new phase of his life began, divided between furious jealousy and
+passionate devotion. This led, after her departure, to an interchange
+of letters, which ended in his following her to Christiania.
+
+On board the steamer he overheard a conversation between the steward
+and stewardess. "She sat up for him of nights till she got what she
+wanted, and now she has got hold of him."
+
+It was possible that this conversation did not concern him, but it was
+equally possible that the woman might have been in the pension at
+Christiania. He did not know her.
+
+It is strange that in all such intrigues as his with Angelika the
+persons concerned are always convinced that they are invisible. He
+believed that, up to this time, no human being had known anything about
+it. The merest suspicion that this was not the case made it altogether
+loathsome.
+
+The pension--Angelika--the letters. He would be hanged if he would go
+on with it for any earthly inducement. Had Angelika angled for him and
+landed him like a stupid fat fish? He had been absolutely unsuspicious.
+The whole affair had been without importance, until they met again at
+Copenhagen. Perhaps THAT, too, had been a deep-laid plan.
+
+Nothing can more wound a man's vanity than to find that, believing
+himself a victor, he is in truth a captive.
+
+Rafael paced the deck half the night, and when he reached Christiania
+went to an hotel, intending to go home the next day to Hellebergene,
+come what would. This and everything of the kind must end for ever: it
+simply led straight to the devil. When once he was at home, and could
+find out where Helene was, the rest would soon be settled.
+
+From the hotel he went up to Angelika Nagel's pension to say that some
+luggage which was there was to be sent down to the hotel at once--he
+was leaving that afternoon.
+
+He had dined and gone up to his room to pack, when Angelika stood
+before him. She was at once so pretty and so sad-looking that he had
+never seen anything more pathetic.
+
+Had he really kept away from her house? Was he going at once?
+
+She wept so despairingly that he, who was prepared for anything rather
+than to see her so inconsolable, answered her evasively.
+
+Their relations, he said, had had no more significance than a chance
+meeting. This they both understood; therefore she must realise that,
+sooner or later, it must end. And now the time was come.
+
+Indeed, it had more significance, she said. There had never been any
+one to whom she had been so much attached; this she had proved to him.
+Now she had come here to tell him that she was enceinte. She was in as
+great despair about it as any one could be. It was ruin for herself and
+her children. She had never contemplated anything so frightful, but her
+mad love had carried her away; so now she was where she deserved to be.
+
+Rafael did not answer, for he could not collect his thoughts. She sat
+at a table, her face buried in her hands, but his eye fell on her
+strong arms in the close-fitting sleeves, her little foot thrust from
+beneath her dress; he saw how her whole frame was shaken by sobs.
+Nevertheless, what first made him collect his thoughts was not sympathy
+with her who was here before him; it was the thought of Helene, of the
+Dean, of his mother: what would THEY say?
+
+As though she were conscious whither his thoughts had flown, she raised
+her head. "Will you really go away from me?" What despair was in her
+face! The strong woman was weaker than a child.
+
+He stood erect before her, beside his open trunk. He, too, was
+absolutely miserable.
+
+"What good will it do for me to stay here?" he asked gently.
+
+Her eyes fixed themselves on him, dilating, becoming clearer every
+moment. Her mouth grew scornful. She seemed to grow taller every moment.
+
+"You will marry me if you are an honourable man!"
+
+"Marry--you?" he exclaimed, first startled, then disdainful. An evil
+expression came into her eyes; she thrust her head forward; the whole
+woman collected herself for the attack like a tiger-cat, but it ended
+with a violent blow on the table.
+
+"Yes you SHALL, devil take me!" she whispered.
+
+She rushed past him to the window. What was she going to do?
+
+She opened it, screamed out he could not clearly hear what, leant far
+out, and screamed again; then closed it, and turned towards him,
+threatening, triumphant. He was as white as a sheet, not because he was
+frightened or dreaded her threats, but because he recognised in her a
+mortal enemy. He braced himself for the struggle.
+
+She saw this at once. She was conscious of his strength before he had
+made a movement. There was that in his eye, in his whole demeanour,
+which SHE would never be able to overcome: a look of determination
+which one would not willingly contest. If he had not understood her
+till now, he had equally revealed himself to her.
+
+All the more wildly did she love him. He rejoiced that he had taken no
+notice of what she had done, but turned to put the last things into his
+trunk and fasten it. Then she came close up to him, in more complete
+contrition, penitence, and wretchedness than he had ever seen in life
+or art. Her face stiffened with terror, her eyes fixed, her whole frame
+rigid, only her tears flowed quietly, without a sob. She must and would
+have him. She seemed to draw him to herself as into a vortex: her love
+had become the necessity of her life, its utterances the wild cry of
+despair.
+
+He understood it now. But he put the things into his trunk and fastened
+it, took a few steps about the room, as if he were alone, with such an
+expression of face that she herself saw that the thing was impossible.
+
+"Do you not believe," she said quietly, "that I would relieve you of
+all cares, so that you could go on with your own work? Have you not
+seen that I can manage your mother?" She paused a moment, then added:
+"Hellebergene--I know the place. The Dean is a relation of mine. I have
+been there; that would be something that I could take charge of; do you
+not think so? And the cement quarries," she added; "I have a turn for
+business: it should be no trouble to you." She said this in an
+undertone. She had a slight lisp, which gave her an air of
+helplessness. "Don't go away, to-day, at any rate. Think it over," she
+added, weeping bitterly again.
+
+He felt that he ought to comfort her.
+
+She came towards him, and throwing her arms round him, she clung to him
+in her despair and eagerness. "Don't go, don't go!" She felt that he
+was yielding. "Never," she whispered, "since I have been a widow have I
+given myself to any one but you; and so judge for yourself." She laid
+her head on his shoulder and sobbed bitterly.
+
+"It has come upon me so suddenly," he said; "I cannot--"
+
+"Then take time," she interrupted in a whisper, and took a hasty kiss.
+"Oh, Rafael!" She twined her arms round him: her touch thrilled through
+him--
+
+Some one knocked at the door: they started away from each other. It was
+the man who had come for the luggage. Rafael flushed crimson. "I shall
+not go till to-morrow," he said.
+
+When the man had left the room Angelika sprang towards Rafael. She
+thanked and kissed him. Oh, how she beamed with delight and exultation!
+She was like a girl of twenty, or rather like a young man, for there
+was something masculine in her manner as she left him.
+
+But the light and fire were no sooner withdrawn than his spirits fell.
+A little later he lay at full length on the sofa, as though in a grave.
+He felt as though he could never get up from it again. What was his
+life now? For there is a dream in every life which is its soul, and
+when the dream is gone the life appears a corpse.
+
+This, then, was the fulfilment of his forebodings. Hither the ravens
+had followed the wild beast which dwelt in him. It would on longer play
+and amuse him, but strike its claws into him in earnest, overthrow him,
+and lap his fresh-spilt blood.
+
+But it was none the less certain that if he left her she would be
+ruined, she and her child. Then no one would consider him as an
+honourable man, least of all himself.
+
+During his last sojourn in France, when he could not settle down to a
+great work which was constantly dawning before him, he had thought to
+himself--You have taken life too lightly. Nothing great ever comes to
+him who does so.
+
+Now, perhaps, when he did his duty here; took upon himself the burden
+of his fault towards her, himself, and others--and bore it like a man;
+then perhaps he would be able to utilise all his powers. That was what
+his mother had done, and she had succeeded.
+
+But with the thought of his mother came the thought of Helene, of his
+dream. It was flying from him like a bird of passage from the autumn.
+He lay there and felt as though he could never get up again.
+
+From amid the turmoil of the last summer there came to his recollection
+two individuals, in whom he reposed entire confidence: a young man and
+his wife. He went to see them the same evening and laid the facts
+honestly before them, for now, at all events, he was honest. The
+conclusive proof of being so is to be able to tell everything about
+oneself as he did now.
+
+They heard him with dismay, but their advice was remarkable. He ought
+to wait and see if she were enceinte.
+
+This aroused his spirit of contradiction. There was no doubt about it,
+for she was perfectly truthful. But she might be mistaken; she ought to
+make quite sure. This suggestion, too, shocked him; but he agreed that
+she should come and talk things over with them. They knew her.
+
+She came the next day. They said to her, what they could not very well
+say to Rafael, that she would ruin him. The wife especially did not
+spare her. A highly gifted young man like Rafael Kaas, with such
+excellent prospects in every way, must not, when little more than
+twenty, burden himself with a middle-aged wife and a number of
+children. He was far from rich, he had told her so himself; his life
+would be that of a beast of burden, and that too, before he had learned
+to bear the yoke. If he had to work, to feed so many people, he might
+strain himself to the uttermost, he would still remain mediocre. They
+would both suffer under this, be disappointed and discontented. He must
+not pay so heavy a price for an indiscretion for which she was ten
+times more to blame than he. What did she imagine people would say? He
+who was so popular, so sought after. They would fall upon her like
+rooks at a rooks' parliament and pick her to pieces. They would,
+without exception, believe the worst.
+
+The husband asked her if she were quite sure that she was enceinte: she
+ought to make quite certain.
+
+Angelika Nazel reddened, and answered, half scornful, half laughing,
+that she ought to know.
+
+"Yes," he retorted, "many people have said that--who were mistaken. If
+it is understood that you are to be married on account of your
+condition, and it should afterwards turn out that you were mistaken,
+what do you suppose that people will say? for of course it will get
+about."
+
+She reddened again and sprang to her feet. "They can say what they
+please." After a pause she added: "But God knows I do not wish to make
+him unhappy."
+
+To conceal her emotion she turned away from them, but the wife would
+not give up. She suggested that Angelika should write to Rafael without
+further delay, to set him free and let him return home to his mother;
+there they would be able to arrange matters. Angelika was so capable
+that she could earn a living anywhere. Rafael too ought to help her.
+
+"I shall write to his mother," Angelika said. "She shall know all about
+it, so that she may understand for what he is responsible."
+
+This they thought reasonable, and Angelika sat down and wrote. She
+frequently showed agitation, but she went on quickly, steadily, sheet
+after sheet. Just then came a ring--a messenger with a letter. The maid
+brought it in. Her mistress was about to take it, but it was not for
+her; it was for Angelika--they both recognised Rafael's careless
+handwriting.
+
+Angelika opened it--grew crimson; for he wrote that the result of his
+most serious considerations was, that neither she nor her children
+should be injured by him. He was an honourable man who would bear his
+own responsibilities, not let others be burdened by them.
+
+Angelika handed the letter to her friend, then tore up the one which
+she had been writing, and left the house.
+
+Her friend stood thinking to herself--The good that is in us must go
+bail for the evil, so we must rest and be satisfied.
+
+The discovery which she had made had often been made before, but it was
+none the less true.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+
+The next day they were married. That night, long after his wife had
+fallen into her usual healthy sleep, Rafael thought sorrowfully of his
+lost Paradise. HE could not sleep. As he lay there he seemed to look
+out over a meadow, which had no springtime, and therefore no flowers.
+He retraced the events of the past day. His would be a marred life
+which had never known the sweet joys of courtship.
+
+Angelika did not share his beliefs. She was a stern realist, a sneering
+sceptic, in the most literal sense a cynic.
+
+Her even breathing, her regular features, seemed to answer him.
+"Hey-dey, my boy, we shall be merry for a thousand years! Better sleep
+now, you will need sleep if you mean to try which of us is the
+stronger."
+
+The next day their marriage was the marvel of the town and
+neighbourhood.
+
+"Just like his mother!" people exclaimed; "what promise there was in
+her! She might have chosen so as to have been now in one of the best
+positions in the country--when, lo and behold! she went and made the
+most idiotic marriage. The most idiotic? No, the son's is more idiotic
+still." And so on and so forth.
+
+Most people seem naturally impelled to exalt the hero of the hour
+higher than they themselves intend, and when a reaction comes, to decry
+him in an equal degree. Few people see with their own eyes, and on
+special occasions even magnifying or diminishing glasses are called
+into play with most amusing results.
+
+"Rafael Kaas a handsome fellow?--well, yes, but too big, too fair, no
+repose, altogether too restless. Rich? He? He has not a stiver! The
+savings eaten up long ago, nothing coming in, they have been
+encroaching on their capital for some time; and the beds of cement
+stone--who the deuce would join with him in any large undertaking? They
+talk about his gifts, his genius even; but IS he very highly gifted? Is
+it anything more than what he has acquired? The saving of motive power
+at the factory? Was that anything more than a mere repetition of what
+he had done before?--and that, of course, only what he had seen
+elsewhere."
+
+Just the same with the hints which he had given. "Merely close personal
+observation; for it must be admitted that he had more of that than most
+people; but as for ingenuity! Well, he could make out a good case for
+himself, but that was about the extent of his ingenuity."
+
+"His earlier articles, as well as those which had recently appeared on
+the use of electricity in baking and tanning--could you call those
+discoveries? Let us see what he will invent now that he has come home,
+and cannot get ideas from reading and from seeing people."
+
+Rafael noticed this change--first among the ladies, who all seemed to
+have been suddenly blown away, with a few exceptions, who did not
+respect a marriage like his, and who would not give in.
+
+His relations, also, held somewhat aloof. "It was not thus that he
+showed himself a true Ravn. He was so in temperament and disposition,
+perhaps, but it was just his defect that he was only a half-breed."
+
+The change of front was complete: he noticed it on all hands. But he
+was man enough, and had sufficient obstinacy as well, to let himself be
+urged on by this to hard work, and in his wife there was still more of
+the same feeling.
+
+He had a sense of elevation in having done his duty, and as long as
+this tension lasted it kept him up to the mark. On the day of his
+marriage (from early in the morning until the time when the ceremony
+took place) he employed himself in writing to his mother; a wonderful,
+a solemn letter in the sight of the All-Knowing,--the cry of a tortured
+soul in utmost peril.
+
+It depended on his mother whether she would receive them and let their
+life become all that was now possible. Angelika--their business,
+manager, housekeeper, chief. He--devoted to his experiments. She--the
+tender mother, the guide of both.
+
+It seemed to him that their future depended on this letter and the
+answer to it, and he wrote in that spirit. Never had he so fully
+depicted himself, so fully searched his own heart.
+
+It was the outcome of what he had lived through during these last few
+days, the mellowing influence of his struggles during the night
+watches. Nothing could have been more candid.
+
+He was pained that he did not receive an answer at once, although he
+realised what a blow it would be to her. He understood that, to begin
+with, it would destroy all her dreams, as it had already destroyed. But
+he relied on her optimistic nature, which he had never known surpassed,
+and on the depth of her purpose in all that she undertook. He knew that
+she drew strength and resolution from all that was deepest in their
+common life.
+
+Therefore he gave her time, notwithstanding Angelika's restlessness,
+which could hardly be controlled. She even began to sneer; but there
+was something holy in his anticipation: her words fell unheeded.
+
+When on the third day he had received no letter, he telegraphed, merely
+these words: "Mother, send me an answer." The wires had never carried
+anything more fraught with unspoken grief.
+
+He could not return home. He remained alone outside the town until the
+evening, by which time the answer might well have arrived. It was there.
+
+"My beloved son, YOU are always welcome; most of all when you are
+unhappy!" The word YOU was underlined. He grew deadly pale, and went
+slowly into his own room. There Angelika let him remain for a while in
+peace, then came in and lit the lamp. He could see that she was much
+agitated, and that every now and then she cast hasty glances at him.
+
+"Do you know what, Rafael? you ought simply to go straight to your
+mother. It is too bad, both on account of our future and hers. We shall
+be ruined by gossip and trash."
+
+He was too unhappy to be contemptuous. She had no respect for anybody
+or anything, he thought; why, then, should he be angry because she felt
+none, either for his mother or for his position in regard to her? But
+how vulgar Angelika seemed to him, as she bent over a troublesome lamp
+and let her impatience break out! Her mouth but too easily acquired a
+coarse expression. Her small head would rear itself above her broad
+shoulders with a snake-like expression, and her thick wrist--
+
+"Well," she said, "when all is said and done, that disgusting
+Hellebergene is not worth making a fuss over."
+
+Now she is annoyed with herself, he thought, and must have her say. She
+will not rest until she has picked a quarrel; but she shall not have
+that satisfaction.
+
+"After all that has been said and all that has happened there--"
+
+But this, too, missed fire. "How could I have supposed that she could
+manage my mother?" He got up and paced the room. "Is that what mother
+felt? Yet they were such good friends. I suspected nothing then. How is
+it that mother's instinct is always more delicate? have I blunted mine?"
+
+When, a little later, Angelika came in again, he looked so unhappy that
+she was struck by it, and she then showed herself so kind and fertile
+in resource on his behalf, and there was such sunshine in her
+cheerfulness and flow of spirits during the evening, that he actually
+brightened up under it, and thought--If mother could have brought
+herself to try the experiment, perhaps after all it might have
+answered. There is so much that is good and capable in this curious
+creature.
+
+He went to the children. From the first day he and they had taken to
+each other. They had been unhappy in the great pension, with a mother
+who seldom came near them or took any notice of them, except as clothes
+to be patched, mouths to feed, or faults to be punished.
+
+Rafael had in his nature the unconventionality which delights in
+children's confidence, and he felt a desire to love and to be loved.
+Children are quick to feel this.
+
+They only wasted Angelika's time. They were in her way now more than
+ever; for it may be said at once that, Rafael had become EVERYTHING to
+her. This was the fascination in her, and whatever happened, it never
+lost its power. Her tenderness, her devotion, were boundless. By the
+aid of her personal charm, her resourceful ingenuity, she obtained
+every advantage for him within her range, and even beyond it. It was
+felt in her devotion by night and day, when anything was to be done, in
+an untiring zeal such as only so strong and healthy a woman could have
+had in her power to render. But in words it did not show itself, hardly
+even in looks: except, perhaps, while she fought to win him, but never
+since then.
+
+Had she been able to adhere to one line of conduct, if only for a few
+weeks at a time, and let herself be guided by her never-failing love,
+he would, in this stimulating atmosphere, have made of his married life
+what his mother, in spite of all, had made of hers.
+
+Why did not this happen? Because the jealousy which she had aroused in
+him and which had drawn him to her again was now reversed.
+
+They were hardly married before it was she who was jealous! Was it
+strange? A middle-aged woman, even though she be endowed with the
+strongest personality and the widest sympathy, when she wins a young
+husband who is the fashion--wins him as Angelika won hers--begins to
+live in perpetual disquietude lest any one should take him from her.
+Had she not taken him herself?
+
+If we were to say that she was jealous of every human being who came
+there, man or woman, old or young, beside those whom he met elsewhere,
+it would be an exaggeration, but this exaggeration throws a strong
+light upon the state of things, which actually existed.
+
+If he became at all interested in conversation with any one, she always
+interrupted. Her face grew hard, her right foot began to move; and if
+this did not suffice, she struck in with sulky or provoking remarks, no
+matter who was there.
+
+If something were said in praise of any one, and it seemed to excite
+his interest, she would pooh-pooh it, literally with a "pooh!" a shrug
+of the shoulders, a toss of the head, or an impatient tap of the foot.
+
+At first he imagined that she really knew something disadvantageous
+about all those whom she thus disparaged, and he was filled with
+admiration at her acquaintance with half Norway. He believed in her
+veracity as he believed in few things. He believed, too, that it was
+unbounded like so many of her qualities. She said the most cynical
+things in the plainest manner without apparent design.
+
+But little by little it dawned upon him that she said precisely what it
+pleased her to say, according to the humour that she was in.
+
+One day, as they were going to table--he had come in late and was
+hungry--he was delighted to see that there were oysters.
+
+"Oysters! at this time of the year," he cried. "They must be very
+expensive."
+
+"Pooh! that was the old woman, you know. She persuaded me to take them
+for you. I got them for next to nothing."
+
+"That was odd; you have been out, then, too?"
+
+"Yes, and I saw YOU; you were walking with Emma Ravn."
+
+He understood at once, by the tone of her voice, that this was not
+permitted, but all the same he said, "Yes; how sweet she is! so fresh
+and candid."
+
+"She! Why, she had a child before she was married."
+
+"Emma? Emma Ravn?"
+
+"Yes! But I do not know who by."
+
+"Do you know, Angelika, I do not believe that," he said solemnly.
+
+"You can do as you please about that, but she was at the pension at the
+time, so you can judge for yourself if I am right."
+
+He could not believe that any human being could so belie themselves.
+Emma's eyes, clear as water in a fountain where one can count the
+pebbles at the bottom, rose to his mind, in all their innocence. He
+could not believe that such eyes could lie. He grew livid, he could not
+eat, he left the table. The world was nothing but a delusion, the
+purest was impure.
+
+For a long time after this, whenever he met Emma or her white-haired
+mother, he turned aside, so as not to come face to face with them.
+
+He had clung to his relations: their weak points were apparent to every
+one, but their ability and honesty no less so. This one story destroyed
+his confidence, impaired his self-reliance, shattered his belief, and
+thus made him the poorer. How could he be fit for anything, when he so
+constantly allowed himself to be befooled?
+
+There was not one word of truth in the whole story.
+
+His simple confidence was held in her grasp, like a child in the talons
+of an eagle; but this did not last much longer.
+
+Fortunately, she was without calculation or perseverance. She did not
+remember one day what she had said the day before; for each day she
+coolly asserted whatever was demanded by the necessity of the moment.
+He, on the contrary, had an excellent memory; and his mathematical mind
+ranged the evidence powerfully against her. Her gifts were more aptness
+and quickness than anything else, they were without training, without
+cohesion, and permeated with passion at all points. Therefore he could,
+at any moment, crush her defence; but whenever this happened, it was so
+evident that she had been actuated by jealousy that it flattered his
+vanity; which was the reason why he did not regard it seriously
+enough--did not pursue his advantage. Perhaps if he had done so, he
+would have discovered more, for this jealousy was merely the form which
+her uneasiness took. This uneasiness arose from several causes.
+
+The fact was that she had a past and she had debts which she had
+denied, and now she lived in perpetual dread lest any one should
+enlighten him. If any one got on the scent, she felt sure that this
+would be used against her. It merely depended on what he learned--in
+other words, with whom he associated.
+
+She could disregard anonymous letters because he did so, but there were
+plenty of disagreeable people who might make innuendoes.
+
+She saw that Rafael too, to some extent, avoided his countless friends
+of old days. She did not understand the reason, but it was this: that
+he, as well, felt that they knew more of her than it was expedient for
+HIM to know. She saw that he made ingenious excuses for not being seen
+out with her. This, too, she misconstrued. She did not at all
+understand that he, in his way, was quite as frightened as she was of
+what people might say. She believed that he sought the society of
+others rather than hers. If nothing more came of such intercourse,
+stories might be told. This was the reason for her slanders about
+almost every one he spoke to. If they had vilified her, they must be
+vilified in return.
+
+She had debts, and this could not be concealed unless she increased
+them; this she did with a boldness worthy of a better cause. The house
+was kept on an extravagant scale, with an excellent table and great
+hospitality. Otherwise he would not be comfortable at home, she said
+and believed.
+
+She herself vied with the most fashionably dressed ladies in the town.
+Her daily struggle to maintain her hold on him demanded this. It
+followed, of course, that she got everything for "nothing" or "the
+greatest bargain in the world." There was always some one "who almost
+gave it" to her. He did not know himself how much money he spent,
+perhaps, because she hunted and drove him from one thing to another.
+
+Originally he had thought of going abroad; but with a wife who knew no
+foreign languages, with a large family--
+
+Here at home, as he soon discovered, every one had lost confidence in
+him. He dared not take up anything important, or else he wished to wait
+a little before he came to any definite determination. In the meantime,
+he did whatever came to hand, and that was often work of a subordinate
+description. Both from weariness, and from the necessity to earn a
+living, he ended by doing only mediocre work, and let things drift.
+
+He always gave out that this was only "provisional." His scientific
+gifts, his inventive genius, with so many pounds on his back, did not
+rise high, but they should yet! He had youth's lavish estimate of time
+and strength, and therefore did not see, for a long time, that the
+large family, the large house were weighing him farther and farther
+down. If only he could have a little peace, he thought, he would carry
+out his present ideas and new ones also. He felt such power within him.
+
+But peace was just what he never had. Now we come to the worst, or more
+properly, to the sum of what has gone before. The ceaseless uneasiness
+in which Angelika lived broke out into perpetual quarrelling. For one
+thing, she had no self-command. A caprice, a mistake, an anxiety
+over-ruled everything. She seized the smallest opportunities.
+Again--and this was a most important factor--there was her overpowering
+anxiety to keep possession of him; this drew her away from what she
+should have paid most heed to, in order to let him have peace. She
+continued her lavish housekeeping, she let the children drift, she
+concentrated all her powers on him. Her jealousy, her fears, her debts,
+sapped his fertile mind, destroyed his good humour, laid desolate his
+love of the beautiful and his creative power.
+
+He had in particular one great project, which he had often, but
+ineffectually, attempted to mature. The effort to do so had begun
+seriously one day on the heights above Hellebergene, and had continued
+the whole summer. Curiously enough, one morning, as he sat at some most
+wearisome work, Hellebergene and Helene, in the spring sunshine, rose
+before him, and with them his project, lofty and smiling, came to him
+again. Then he begged for a little peace in the house.
+
+"Let me be quiet, if only for a month," he said. "Here is some money. I
+have got an idea; I must and will have quiet. In a month's time I shall
+have got on so far that perhaps I shall be able to judge if it is worth
+continuing. It may be that this one idea may entirely support us."
+
+This was something which she could understand, and now he was able to
+be quiet.
+
+He had an office in the town, but sometimes took his papers home with
+him in the evenings, for it often happened that something would occur
+to him at one moment or another. She bestowed every care on him; she
+even sat on the stairs while he was asleep at midday, to prevent him
+from being disturbed.
+
+This went on for a fortnight. Then it so chanced that, when he had gone
+out for a walk, she rummaged among his papers, and there, among
+drawings, calculations, and letters, she actually, for once in a way,
+found something. It was in his handwriting and as follows:
+
+"More of the mother than the lover in her; more of the solicitude of
+love than of its enjoyment. Rich in her affection, she would not
+squander it in one day with you, but, mother-like, would distribute it
+throughout your life. Instead of the whirl of the rapids, a placid
+stream. Her love was devotion, never absorption. YOU were one and SHE
+was one. Together we should have been more powerful than two lovers are
+wont to be."
+
+There was more of this, but Angelika could not read further, she became
+so furious. Were these his own thoughts, or had he merely copied them?
+There were no corrections, so most likely it was a copy. In any case it
+showed where his thoughts were.
+
+Rafael came quietly home, went straight to his room and lighted a
+candle, even before he took off his overcoat. As he stood he wrote down
+a few formulae, then seized a book, sat down astride of a chair, and
+made a rapid calculation. Just then Angelika came in, leaned forward
+towards him, and said in a low voice:
+
+"You are a nice fellow! Now I know what you have in hand. Look there:
+your secret thoughts are with that beast."
+
+"Beast!" he repeated. His anger at being disturbed, at her having found
+this particular paper, and now the abuse from her coarse lips of the
+most delicate creature he had ever known, and, above all, the absolute
+unexpectedness of the attack, made him lose his head.
+
+"How dare you? What do you mean?"
+
+"Don't be a fool. Do you suppose that I don't guess that that is meant
+for the girl who looked after your estate in order to catch you?"
+
+She saw that this hit the mark, so she went still further.
+
+"She, the model of virtue! why, when she was a mere girl, she disgraced
+herself with an old man."
+
+As she spoke she was seized by the throat and flung backwards on to the
+sofa, without the grasp being relaxed. She was breathless, she saw his
+face over her; deadly rage was in it. A strength, a wildness of which
+she had no conception, gazed upon her in sensual delight at being able
+to strangle her.
+
+After a wild struggle her arms sank down powerless, her will with them;
+only her eyes remained wide open, in terror and wonderment.
+
+Dare he? "Yes, he dare!" Her eyes grew dim, her limbs began to tremble.
+
+"You have taken MY apple, I tell you," was heard in a childish voice
+from the next room, a soft lisping voice.
+
+It came from the most peaceful innocence in the world! It saved her!
+
+He rushed out again; but even when the rage had left him which had
+seized upon him and dominated him as a rider does a horse, he was still
+not horrified at himself. His satisfaction at having at length made his
+power felt was too great for that.
+
+But by degrees there came a revulsion. Suppose he had killed her, and
+had to go into penal servitude for the rest of his life for it! Had
+such a possibility come into his life? Might it happen in the future?
+No! no! no! How strange that Angelika should have wounded him! How
+frightful her state of mind must be when she could think so odiously of
+absolutely innocent people; and how angry she must have been to behave
+in such a way towards him, whom she loved above all others, indeed, as
+the only one for whom she had to live!
+
+A long, long sum followed: his faults, her faults, and the faults of
+others. He cooled down and began to feel more like himself.
+
+In an hour or two he was fit to go home, to find her on her bed,
+dissolved in tears, prepared at once to throw her arms round his neck.
+
+He asked pardon a hundred times, with words, kisses, and caresses.
+
+But with this scene his invention had fled. The spell was broken. It
+never did more than flutter before him, tempting him to pursue it once
+more; but he turned away from the whole subject and began to work for
+money again. Something offered itself just at that moment which
+Angelika had hunted up.
+
+Back to the unending toil again. Now at last it became an irritation to
+him: he chafed as the war horse chafes at being made a beast of burden.
+
+This made the scenes at home still worse. Since that episode their
+quarrels knew no bounds. Words were no longer necessary to bring them
+about: a gesture, a look, a remark of his unanswered, was enough to
+arouse the most violent scenes. Hitherto they had been restrained by
+the presence of others, but now it was the same whether they were alone
+or not. Very soon, as far as brutality of expression or the triviality
+of the question was concerned, he was as bad or worse than she.
+
+His idle fancy and creative genius found no other vent, but overthrew
+and trampled underfoot many of life's most beautiful gifts. Thus he
+squandered much of the happiness which such talents can duly give.
+Sometimes his daily regrets and sufferings, sometimes his passionate
+nature, were in the ascendant, but the cause of his despair was always
+the same--that this could have happened to him. Should he leave her? He
+would not thus escape. The state of the case had touched his conscience
+at first, later he had become fond of the children, and his mother's
+example said to him, "Hold out, hold out!"
+
+The unanimous prediction that this marriage would be dissolved as
+quickly as it had been made he would prove to be untrue. Besides, he
+knew Angelika too well now not to know that he would never obtain a
+separation from her until, with the law at her back, she had flayed him
+alive. He could not get free.
+
+From the first it had been a question of honour and duty; honour and
+duty on account of the child which was to come--and which did not come.
+Here he had a serious grievance against her; but yet, in the midst of
+the tragedy, he could not but be amused at the skill with which she
+turned his own gallantries against him. At last he dared not mention
+the subject, for he only heard in return about his gay bachelor life.
+
+The longer this state of things lasted and the more it became known,
+the more incomprehensible it became to most people that they did not
+separate--to himself, too, at times, during sleepless nights. But it is
+sometimes the case that he, who makes a thousand small revolts, cannot
+brace himself to one great one. The endless strife itself strengthens
+the bonds, in that it saps the strength.
+
+He deteriorated. This married life, wearing in every way, together with
+the hard work, resulted in his not being equal to more than just the
+necessities of the day. His initiative and will became proportionately
+deadened.
+
+A strange stagnation developed itself: he had hallucinations, visions;
+he saw himself in them--his father! his mother! all the pictures were
+of a menacing description.
+
+At night he dreamed the most frightful things: his unbridled fancy, his
+unoccupied creative power, took revenge, and all this weakened him. He
+looked with admiration at his wife's robust health: she had the
+physique of a wild beast. But at times their quarrels, their
+reconciliations, brought revelations with them: he could perceive her
+sorrows as well. She did not complain, she did not say a word, she
+could not do so; but at times she wept and gave way as only the most
+despairing can. Her nature was powerful, and the struggle of her love
+beyond belief. The beauty of the fulness of life was there, even when
+she was most repulsive. The wild creature, wrestling with her destiny,
+often gave forth tragic gleams of light.
+
+One day his relation, the Government Secretary, met him. They usually
+avoided each other, but to-day he stopped.
+
+"Ah, Rafael," said the dapper little man nervously, "I was coming to
+see you."
+
+"My dear fellow, what is it?"
+
+"Ah, I see that you guess; it is a letter from your mother."
+
+"From my mother?"
+
+During all the time since her telegram they had not exchanged a word.
+
+"A very long letter, but she makes a condition."
+
+"Hum, hum! a condition?"
+
+"Yes, but do not be angry; it is not a hard one: it is only that you
+are to go away from the town, wherever you like, so long as you can be
+quiet, and then you are to read it."
+
+"You know the contents?"
+
+"I know the contents, I will go bail for it."
+
+What he meant, or why he was so perturbed by it, Rafael did not
+understand, but it infected him; if he had had the money, and if on
+that day he had been disengaged, he would have gone at once. But he had
+not the money, not more than he wanted for the fete that evening. He
+had the tickets for it in his pocket at that moment. He had promised
+Angelika that he would go there with her, and he would keep his
+promise, for it had been given after a great reconciliation scene. A
+white silk dress had been the olive branch of these last peaceful days.
+She therefore looked very handsome that evening as she walked into the
+great hall of the Lodge, with Rafael beside her tall and stately. She
+was in excellent spirits. Her quiet eyes had a haughty expression as
+she turned her steps with confident superiority towards those whom she
+wished to please, or those whom she hoped to annoy.
+
+HE did not feel confident. He did not like showing himself in public
+with her, and lately it had precisely been in public places that she
+had chosen to make scenes; besides which, he felt nervous as to what
+his mother could wish to say to him.
+
+A short time before he came to the fete, he had tried, in two quarters,
+to borrow money, and each time had received only excuses. This had
+greatly mortified him. His disturbed state of mind, as is so often the
+case with nervous people, made him excited and boisterous, nay, even
+made him more than usually jovial. And as though a little of the old
+happiness were actually to come to him that evening, he met his friend
+and relative Hans Ravn, him and his young Bavarian wife, who had just
+come to the town. All three were delighted to meet.
+
+"Do you remember," said Hans Ravn, "how often you have lent me money,
+Rafael?" and he drew him on one side. "Now I am at the top of the tree,
+now I am married to an heiress, and the most charming girl too; ah, you
+must know her better."
+
+"She is pretty as well," said Rafael.
+
+"And pretty as well--and good tempered; in fact, you see before you the
+happiest man in Norway."
+
+Rafael's eyes filled. Ravn put his hands on to his friend's shoulders.
+
+"Are you not happy, Rafael?"
+
+"Not quite so happy as you, Hans--"
+
+He left him to speak to some one else, then returned again.
+
+"You say, Hans, that I have often lent you money."
+
+"Are you pressed? Do you want some, Rafael? My dear fellow, how much?"
+
+"Can you spare me two thousand kroner?"
+
+"Here they are."
+
+"No, no; not in here, come outside."
+
+"Yes, let us go and have some champagne to celebrate our meeting. No,
+not our wives," he added, as Rafael looked towards where they stood
+talking.
+
+"Not our wives," laughed Rafael. He understood the intention, and now
+he wished to enjoy his freedom thoroughly. They came in again merrier
+and more boisterous than before.
+
+Rafael asked Hans Ravn's young wife to dance. Her personal attractions,
+natural gaiety, and especially her admiration of her husband's
+relations, took him by storm. They danced twice, and laughed and talked
+together afterwards.
+
+Later in the evening the two friends rejoined their wives, so that they
+might all sit together at supper. Even from a distance Rafael could see
+by Angelika's face that a storm was brewing. He grew angry at once. He
+had never been blamed more groundlessly. He was never to have any
+unalloyed pleasure, then! But he confined himself to whispering, "Try
+to behave like other people." But that was exactly what she did not
+mean to do. He had left her alone, every one had seen it. She would
+have her revenge. She could not endure Hans Ravn's merriment, still
+less that of his wife, so she contradicted rudely once, twice, three
+times, while Hans Ravn's face grew more and more puzzled. The storm
+might have blown over, for Rafael parried each thrust, even turning
+them into jokes, so that the party grew merrier, and no feelings were
+hurt; but on this she tried fresh tactics. As has been already said,
+she could make a number of annoying gestures, signs and movements which
+only he understood. In this way she showed him her contempt for
+everything which every one, and especially he himself, said. He could
+not help looking towards her, and saw this every time he did so, until
+under the cover of the laughter of the others, with as much fervour and
+affection as can be put into such a word, "You jade!" he said.
+
+"Jade; was ist das?" asked the bright-eyed foreigner.
+
+This made the whole affair supremely ridiculous. Angelika herself
+laughed, and all hoped that the cloud had been finally dispersed.
+No!--as though Satan himself had been at table with them, she would not
+give in.
+
+The conversation again grew lively, and when it was at its height, she
+pooh-poohed all their jokes so unmistakably that they were completely
+puzzled. Rafael gave her a furious look, and then she jeered at him,
+"You boy!" she said. After this Rafael answered her angrily, and let
+nothing pass without retaliation, rough, savage retaliation; he was
+worse than she was.
+
+"But God bless me!" said good-natured Hans Ravn at length, "how you are
+altered, Rafael!" His genial kindly eyes gazed at him with a look which
+Rafael never forget.
+
+"Ja, ich kan es nicht mehr aushalten" said the young Fru Ravn, with
+tears in her eyes. She rose, her husband hurried to her, and they left
+together. Rafael sat down again, with Angelika. Those near them looked
+towards them and whispered together. Angry and ashamed, he looked
+across at Angelika, who laughed. Everything seemed to turn red before
+his eyes--he rose; he had a wild desire to kill her there, before every
+one. Yes! the temptation overpowered him to such an extent that he
+thought that people must notice it.
+
+"Are you not well, Kaas?" he heard some one beside him say.
+
+He could not remember afterwards what he answered, or how he got away;
+but still, in the street, he dwelt with ecstasy on the thought of
+killing her, of again seeing her face turn black, her arms fall
+powerless, her eyes open wide with terror; for that was what would
+happen some day. He should end his life in a felon's cell. That was as
+certainly a part of his destiny as had been the possession of talents
+which he had allowed to become useless.
+
+A quarter of an hour later he was at the observatory: he scanned the
+heavens, but no stars were visible. He felt that he was perspiring,
+that his clothes clung to him, yet he was ice-cold. That is the future
+that awaits you, he thought; it runs ice-cold through your limbs.
+
+Then it was that a new and, until then, unused power, which underlay
+all else, broke forth and took the command.
+
+"You shall never return home to her, that is all past now, boy; I will
+not permit it any longer."
+
+What was it? What voice was that? It really sounded as though outside
+himself. Was it his father's? It was a man's voice. It made him clear
+and calm. He turned round, he went straight to the nearest hotel,
+without further thought, without anxiety. Something new was about to
+begin.
+
+He slept for three hours undisturbed by dreams; it was the first night
+for a long time that he had done so.
+
+The following morning he sat in the little pavilion at the station at
+Eidsvold with his mother's packet of letters laid open before him. It
+consisted of a quantity of papers which he had read through.
+
+The expanse of Lake Mjosen lay cold and grey beneath the autumn mist,
+which still shrouded the hillsides. The sound of hammers from the
+workshops to the right mingled with the rumble of wheels on the bridge;
+the whistle of an engine, the rattle of crockery from the restaurant;
+sights and sounds seethed round him like water boiling round an egg.
+
+As soon as his mother had felt sure that Angelika was not really
+enceinte she had busied herself in collecting all the information about
+her which it was possible to obtain.
+
+By the untiring efforts of her ubiquitous relations she had succeeded
+to such an extent and in such detail as no examining magistrate could
+have accomplished. And there now lay before him letters, explanations,
+evidence, which the deponent was ready to swear to, besides letters
+from Angelika herself: imprudent letters which this impulsive creature
+could perpetrate in the midst of her schemes; or deeply calculated
+letters, which directly contradicted others which had been written at a
+different period, based on different calculations. These documents were
+only the accompaniment of a clear summing-up by his mother. It was
+therefore she who had guided the investigations of the others and made
+a digest of their discoveries. With mathematical precision was here
+laid down both what was certain and what, though not certain, was
+probable. No comment was added, not a word addressed to himself.
+
+That portion of the disclosures which related to Angelika's past does
+not concern us. That which had reference to her relations with Rafael
+began by proving that the anonymous letters, which had been the means
+of preventing his engagement with Helene, had been written by Angelika.
+This revelation and that which preceded it, give an idea of the
+overwhelming humiliation under which Rafael now suffered. What was he
+that he could be duped and mastered like a captured animal; that what
+was best and what was worst in him could lead him so far astray? Like a
+weak fool he was swept along; he had neither seen nor heard nor thought
+before he was dragged away from everything that was his or that was
+dear to him.
+
+As he sat there, the perspiration poured from him as it had done the
+night before, and again he felt a deadly chill. He therefore went up to
+his room with the papers, which he locked up in his trunk, and then set
+off at a run along the road. The passers-by turned to stare after the
+tall fellow.
+
+As he ran he repeated to himself, "Who are you, my lad? who are you?"
+Then he asked the hills the same question, and then the trees as well.
+He even asked the fog, which was now rolling off, "Who am I? can you
+answer me that?"
+
+The close-cropped half-withered turf mocked him--the cleared potato
+patches, the bare fields, the fallen leaves.
+
+"That which you are you will never be; that which you can you will
+never do; that which you ought to become you will never attain to! As
+you, so your mother before you. She turned aside--and your father
+too--into absolute folly; perhaps their fathers before them! This is a
+branch of a great family who never attained to what they were intended
+for."
+
+"Something different has misled each one of us, but we have all been
+misled. Why is that so? We have greater aims than many others, but the
+others drove along the beaten highway right through the gates of
+Fortune's house. We stray away from the highway and into the wood. See!
+am I not there myself now? Away from the highway and into the wood, as
+though I were led by an inward law. Into the wood." He looked round
+among the mountain-ashes, the birches, and other leafy trees in autumn
+tints. They stood all round, dripping, as though they wept for his
+sorrow. "Yes, yes; they will see me hang here, like Absalom by his long
+hair." He had not recalled this old picture a moment before he stopped,
+as though seized by a strong hand.
+
+He must not fly from this, but try to fathom it. The more he thought of
+it, the clearer it became: ABSALOM'S HISTORY WAS HIS OWN. He began with
+rebellion. Naturally rebellion is the first step in a course which
+leads one from the highway--leads to passion and its consequences. That
+was clear enough.
+
+Thus passion overpowered strength of purpose; thus chance circumstances
+sapped the foundations--But David rebelled as well. Why, then, was not
+David hung up by his hair? It was quite as long as Absalom's. Yes,
+David was within an ace of it, right up to his old age. But the innate
+strength in David was too great, his energy was always too powerful: it
+conquered the powers of rebellion. They could not drag him far away
+into passionate wanderings; they remained only holiday flights in his
+life and added poetry to it. They did not move his strength of purpose.
+Ah, ha! It was so strong in David that he absorbed them and fed on
+them; and yet he was within an ace--very often. See! That is what I,
+miserable contemptible wretch, cannot do. So I must hang! Very soon the
+man with the spear will be after me.
+
+Rafael now set off running; probably he wished to escape the man with
+the spear. He now entered the thickest part of the wood, a narrow
+valley between two high hills which overshadowed it. Oh, how thirsty he
+was, so fearfully thirsty! He stood still and wondered whether he could
+get anything to drink. Yes, he could hear the murmur of a brook. He ran
+farther down towards it. Close by was an opening in the wood, and as he
+went towards the stream he was arrested by something there: the sun had
+burst forth and lighted up the tree-tops, throwing deep shadows below.
+Did he see anything? Yes; it seemed to him that he saw himself, not
+absolutely in the opening, but to one side, in the shadow, under a
+tree; he hung there by his hair. He hung there and swung, a man, but in
+the velvet jacket of his childhood and the tight-fitting trousers: he
+swung suspended by his tangled red hair. And farther away he distinctly
+saw another figure: it was his mother, stiff and stately, who was
+turning round as if to the sound of music. And, God preserve him! still
+farther away, broad and heavy, hung his father, by the few thin hairs
+on his neck, with wretched distorted face as on his death-bed. In other
+respects those two were not great sinners. They were old; but his sins
+were great, for he was young, and therefore nothing had ever prospered
+with him, not even in his childhood. There had always been something
+which had caused him to be misunderstood or which had frightened him or
+made him constantly constrained and uncertain of himself. Never had he
+been able to keep to the main point, and thus to be in quiet natural
+peace. With only one exception--his meeting with Helene.
+
+It seemed to him that he was sitting in the boat with her out in the
+bay. The sky was bright, there was melody in the woods. Now he was up
+on the hill with her, among the saplings, and she was explaining to him
+that it depended on her care whether they throve or not.
+
+He went to the brook to drink; he lay down over the water. He was thus
+able to see his own face. How could that happen? Why, there was
+sunshine overhead. He was able to see his own face. Great heavens! how
+like his father he had become. In the last year he had grown very like
+his father--people had said so. He well remembered his mother's manner
+when she noticed it. But, good God! were those grey hairs? Yes, in
+quantities, so that his hair was no longer red but grey. No one had
+told him of it. Had he advanced so far, been so little prepared for it,
+that Hans Ravn's remark, "How you are altered, Rafael!" had frightened
+him?
+
+He had certainly given up observing himself, in this coarse life of
+quarrels. In it, certainly, neither words nor deeds were weighed, and
+hence this hunted feeling. It was only natural that he had ceased to
+observe. If the brook had been a little deeper, he would have let
+himself be engulfed in it. He got up, and went on again, quicker and
+quicker: sometimes he saw one person, sometimes another, hanging in the
+woods.
+
+He dare not turn round. Was it so very wonderful that others besides
+himself and his family had turned from the beaten track, and peopled
+the byways and the boughs in the wood? He had been unjust towards
+himself and his parents; they were not alone, they were in only too
+large a company. What will unjust people say, but that the very thing
+which requires strength does not receive it, but half of it comes to
+nothing, more than half of the powers are wasted. Here, in these strips
+of woodland which run up the hills side by side, like organ-pipes,
+Henrik Vergeland had also roamed: within an ace, with him too, within
+an ace! Wonderful how the ravens gather together here, where so many
+people are hanging. Ha! ha! He must write this to his mother! It was
+something to write about to her, who had left him, who deserted him
+when he was the most unhappy, because all that she cared for was to
+keep her sacred person inviolate, to maintain her obstinate opinion, to
+gratify her pique--Oh! what long hair!--How fast his mother was held!
+She had not cut her hair enough then. But now she should have her
+deserts. Everything from as far back as he could remember should be
+recalled, for once in a way he would show her herself; now he had both
+the power and the right. His powers of discovery had been long hidden
+under the suffocating sawdust of the daily and nightly sawing; but now
+it was awake, and his mother should feel it.
+
+People noticed the tall man break out of the wood, jump over hedges and
+ditches, and make his way straight up the hill. At the very top he
+would write to his mother!--
+
+He did not return to the hotel till dark. He was wet, dirty, and
+frightfully exhausted. He was as hungry as a wolf, he said, but he
+hardly ate anything; on the other hand, he was consumed with thirst. On
+leaving the table he said that he wished to stay there a few days to
+sleep. They thought that he was joking, but he slept uninterruptedly
+until the afternoon of the next day. He was then awakened, ate a little
+and drank a great deal, for he had perspired profusely; after which he
+fell asleep again. He passed the next twenty-four hours in much the
+same way.
+
+When he awoke the following morning he found himself alone.
+
+Had not a doctor been there, and had he not said that it was a good
+thing for him to sleep? It seemed to him that he had heard a buzz of
+voices; but he was sure that he was well now, only furiously hungry and
+thirsty, and when he raised himself he felt giddy. But that passed off
+by degrees, when he had eaten some of the food which had been left
+there. He drank out of the water-jug--the carafe was empty--and walked
+once or twice up and down before the open window. It was decidedly
+cold, so he shut it. Just then he remembered that he had written a
+frightful letter to his mother!
+
+How long ago was it? Had he not slept a long time? Had he not turned
+grey? He went to the looking-glass, but forgot the grey hair at the
+sight of himself. He was thin, lank, and dirty.--The letter! the
+letter! It will kill my mother! There had already been misfortunes
+enough, more must not follow.
+
+He dressed himself quickly, as if by hurrying he could overtake the
+letter. He looked at the clock--it had stopped. Suppose the train were
+in! He must go by it, and from the train straight to the steamer, and
+home, home to Hellebergene! But he must send a telegram to his mother
+at once. He wrote it--"Never mind the letter, mother. I am coming this
+evening and will never leave you again."
+
+So now he had only to put on a clean collar, now his watch--it
+certainly was morning--now to pack, go down and pay the bill, have
+something to eat, take his ticket, send the telegram; but first--no, it
+must all be done together, for the train WAS there; it had only a few
+minutes more to wait; he could only just catch it. The telegram was
+given to some one else to send off.
+
+But he had hardly got into the carriage, where he was alone, than the
+thought of the letter tortured him, till he could not sit still. This
+dreadful analysis of his mother, strophe after strophe, it rose before
+him, it again drove him into the state of mind in which he had been
+among the hills and woods of Eidsvold. Beyond the tunnel the character
+of the scenery was the same.--Good God! that dreadful letter was never
+absent from his thoughts, otherwise he would not suffer so terribly.
+What right had he to reproach his mother, or any one, because a mere
+chance should have become of importance in their lives?
+
+Would the telegram arrive in time to save her from despair, and yet not
+frighten her from home because he was coming? To think that he could
+write in such a way to her, who had but lived to collect the
+information which would free him! His ingratitude must appear too
+monstrous to her. The extreme reserve which she was unable to break
+through might well lead to catastrophes. What might not she have
+determined on when she received this violent attack by way of thanks?
+Perhaps she would think that life was no longer worth living, she who
+thought it so easy to die. He shuddered.
+
+But she will do nothing hastily, she will weigh everything first. Her
+roots go deep. When she appears to have acted on impulse, it is because
+she has had previous knowledge. But she has no previous knowledge here;
+surely here she will deliberate.
+
+He pictured her as, wrapped in her shawl, she wandered about in dire
+distress--or with intent gaze reviewing her life and his own, until
+both appeared to her to have been hopelessly wasted--or pondering where
+she could best hide herself so that she should suffer no more.
+
+How he loved her! All that had happened had drawn a veil over his eyes,
+which was now removed.
+
+ Now he was on board the steamer which was bearing him home. The
+weather had become mild and summerlike; it had been raining, but
+towards evening it began to clear. He would get to Hellebergene in fine
+weather, and by moonlight. It grew colder; he spoke to no one, nor had
+he eyes for anything about him.
+
+The image of his mother, wrapped in her long shawl--that was all the
+company he had. Only his mother! No one but his mother! Suppose the
+telegram had but frightened her the more--that to see HIM now appeared
+the worst that could happen. To read such a crushing doom for her whole
+life, and that from him! She was not so constituted that it could be
+cancelled by his asking forgiveness and returning to her. On the
+contrary, it would precipitate the worst, it must do so.
+
+The violent perspiration began again; he had to put on more wraps. His
+terror took possession of him: he was forced to contemplate the most
+awful possibilities--to picture to himself what death his mother would
+choose!
+
+He sprang to his feet and paced up and down. He longed to throw himself
+into somebody's arms, to cry aloud. But he knew well that he must not
+let such words escape him.--He HAD to picture her as she handled the
+guns, until she relinquished the idea of using any of them. Then he
+imagined her recalling the deepest hiding-places in the woods--where
+were they all?
+
+HE recalled them, one after another. No, not in any of THOSE, for she
+wished to hide herself where she would never be found! There was the
+cement-bed; it went sheer down there, and the water was deep!--He clung
+to the rigging to prevent himself from falling. He prayed to be
+released from these terrors. But he saw her floating there, rocked by
+the rippling water. Was it the face which was uppermost, or was it the
+body, which for a while floated higher than the face?
+
+His thoughts were partially diverted from this by people coming up to
+ask him if he were ill. He got something warm and strong to drink, and
+now the steamer approached the part of the coast with which he was
+familiar. They passed the opening into Hellebergene, for one has to go
+first to the town, and thence in a boat. It now became the question,
+whether a boat had been sent for him. In that case his mother was
+alive, and would welcome him. But if there was no boat, then a message
+from the gulf had been sent instead!
+
+And there was no boat!--
+
+For a moment his senses failed him; only confused sounds fell on his
+ear. But then he seemed to emerge from a dark passage. He must get to
+Hellebergene! He must see what had happened; he would go and search!
+
+By this time it was growing dark. He went on shore and looked round for
+a boat as though half asleep. He could hardly speak, but he did not
+give in till he got the men together and hired the boat. He took the
+helm himself, and bade them row with all their might. He knew every
+peak in the grey twilight. They might depend on him, and row on without
+looking round. Soon they had passed the high land and were in among the
+islands. This time they did not come out to meet him; they all seemed
+gathered there to repel him. No boat had been sent; there was,
+therefore, nothing more for him to do here. No boat had been sent,
+because he had forfeited his place here. Like savage beasts, with
+bristles erect, the peaks and islands arrayed themselves against him.
+"Row on, my lads," he cried, for now arose again in him that dormant
+power which only manifested itself in his utmost need.
+
+"How is it with you, my boy? I am growing weary. Courage, now, and
+forward!"
+
+Again that voice outside himself--a man's voice. Was it his father's?
+
+Whether or not it were his father's voice, here before his father's
+home he would struggle against Fate.
+
+In man's direst necessity, what he has failed in and what he can do
+seem to encounter each other. And thus, just as the boat had cleared
+the point and the islands and was turning into the bay, he raised
+himself to his full height, and the boatmen looked at him in
+astonishment. He still grasped the rudder-lines, and looked as though
+he were about to meet an enemy. Or did he hear anything? was it the
+sound of oars?
+
+Yes, they heard them now as well. From the strait near the inlet a boat
+was approaching them. She loomed large on the smooth surface of the
+water and shot swiftly along.
+
+"Is that a boat from Hellebergene?" shouted Rafael. His voice shook.
+
+"Yes," came a voice out of the darkness, and he recognised the
+bailiff's voice. "Is it Rafael?"
+
+"Yes. Why did you not come before?"
+
+"The telegram has only just arrived."
+
+He sat down. He did not speak. He became suddenly incapable of uttering
+a word.
+
+The other boat turned and followed them. Rafael nearly ran his boat on
+shore; he forgot that he was steering. Very soon they cleared the
+narrow passage which led into the inner bay, and rounded the last
+headland, and there!--there lay Hellebergene before them in a blaze of
+light! From cellar to attic, in every single window, it glowed, it
+streamed with light, and at that moment another light blazed out from
+the cairn on the hill-top.
+
+It was thus that his mother greeted him. He sobbed; and the boatmen
+heard him, and at the same time noticed that it had grown suddenly
+light. They turned round, and were so engrossed in the spectacle that
+they forgot to row.
+
+"Come! you must let me get on," was all that he could manage to say.
+
+His sufferings were forgotten as he leapt from the boat. Nor did it
+disturb him that he did not meet his mother at the landing-place, or
+near the house, nor see her on the terrace. He simply rushed up the
+stairs and opened the door.
+
+The candles in the windows gave but little light within. Indeed,
+something had been put in the windows for them to stand on, so that the
+interior was half in shadow. But he had come in from the semi-darkness.
+He looked round for her, but he heard some one crying at the other end
+of the room. There she sat, crouched in the farthest corner of the
+sofa, with her feet drawn up under her, as in old days when she was
+frightened. She did not stretch out her arms; she remained huddled
+together. But he bent over her, knelt down, laid his face on hers, wept
+with her. She had grown fragile, thin, haggard, ah! as though she could
+be blown away. She let him take her in his arms like a child and clasp
+her to his breast; let him caress and kiss her. Ah, how ethereal she
+had become! And those eyes, which at last he saw, now looked tearfully
+out from their large orbits, but more innocently than a bird from its
+nest. Over her broad forehead she had wound a large silk handkerchief
+in turban fashion. It hung down behind. She wished to conceal the
+thinness of her hair. He smiled to recognise her again in this. More
+spiritualised, more ethereal in her beauty, her innermost aspirations
+shone forth without effort. Her thin hands caressed his hair, and now
+she gazed into his eyes.
+
+"Rafael, my Rafael!" She twined her arms round him and murmured
+welcome. But soon she raised her head and resumed a sitting posture.
+She wished to speak. He was beforehand with her.
+
+"Forgive the letter," he whispered with beseeching eyes and voice, and
+hands upraised.
+
+"I saw the distress of your soul," was the whispered answer, for it
+could not be spoken aloud. "And there was nothing to forgive," she
+added. She had laid her face against his again. "And it was quite true,
+Rafael," she murmured.
+
+She must have passed through terrible days and nights here, he thought,
+before she could say that.
+
+"Mother, mother! what a fearful time!"
+
+Her little hand sought his: it was cold; it lay in his like an egg in a
+deserted nest. He warmed it and took the other as well.
+
+"Was not the illumination splendid?" she said. And now her voice was
+like a child's.
+
+He moved the screen which obstructed the light: he must see her better.
+He thought, when he saw the look of happiness in her face, if life
+looks so beautiful to her still, we shall have a long time together.
+
+"If you had told me all that about Absalom, the picture which you made
+when you were told the story of David, Rafael; if you had only told me
+that before!" She paused, and her lips quivered.
+
+"How could I tell it to you, mother, when I did not understand it
+myself?"
+
+"The illumination--that must signify that I, too, understand. It ought
+to light you forward; do you not think so?"
+
+
+
+
+A PAINFUL MEMORY FROM CHILDHOOD
+
+I must have been somewhere about seven years old, when one Sunday
+afternoon a rumour reached the parsonage that, on that same day, two
+men, rowing past the Buggestrand in Eidsfjord, had discovered a woman
+who had fallen over a cliff, and had remained half lying, half hanging,
+close to the water's edge.
+
+Before moving her, they tried to find out from her who had thrown her
+over.
+
+It was thirty-five miles by water to the doctor's, and then an order
+for admission to the hospital had also to be procured. She had lain
+twenty-four hours before help reached her, and shortly afterwards she
+died. Before she breathed her last, she said it was Peer Hagbo who had
+done it. "But," she added, "they mustn't do him any harm."
+
+Everybody knew that there had been an attachment between the girl, who
+was in service at Hagbo's, and the son of the house, and the shrewd
+ones instantly guessed why he wanted to get her out of the way.
+
+I remember clearly the arrival of the news. It was, as I have said, on
+a Sunday afternoon, her death having occurred on the morning of the
+same day.
+
+It was in the very middle of summer, when the whole place was flooded
+with sunshine and gladness. I remember how the light faded, faces
+turned to stone, the fjord grew dim, and village and forest shrank away
+into shadow. I remember that even the next day I felt as though a blow
+had been dealt to ordinary existence. I knew that I need not go to
+school. Men knocked off work, leaving everything just as it was, and
+sat down with idle hands. The women especially were paralysed: it was
+evident they felt themselves threatened, they even said as much. When
+strangers came to the parsonage their bearing and expression showed
+that the murder lay heavy on their minds, and they read the same story
+in us. We took each other's hands with a sense of remoteness. The
+murder was the only thing that was present with us. Whatever we talked
+of we seemed to hear of the murder in voice and word. The last
+consciousness at night and the first in the morning was that everything
+was unsettled, and that the joy of life was suddenly arrested, like the
+hands on a dial at a certain hour.
+
+But by degrees the murder fell into its proper place among other
+interests; curiosity and gossip had made it commonplace. It was taken
+up, turned over, considered, picked at and pulled about, till it became
+simply "the last new thing." Soon we knew every detail of the relation
+between the murdered and the murderer. We knew who it was that Peer's
+mother had wanted him to marry; we knew the Hagbo family in and out,
+and their history for generations past.
+
+When the magistrate came to the parsonage to institute the preliminary
+inquiry, the murder was merely an inexhaustible theme of conversation.
+But the next day when the bailiff and some other men appeared with the
+murderer, a new feeling took possession of me, a feeling of which I
+could not have imagined myself capable--an overpowering compassion. A
+young good-looking lad, well grown, slightly built, rather small than
+otherwise, with dark not very thick hair, with appealing eyes which
+were now downcast, with a clear voice, and about his whole personality
+a certain charm, almost refinement; a creature to associate with life,
+not death, with gladness, with gaiety. I was more sorry for him than I
+can say. The bailiff and the other people spoke kindly to him too, so
+they must have felt the same. Only the peppery little clerk came out
+with some hard words, but the accused stood cap in hand and made no
+answer.
+
+He paced up and down the yard in his shirt sleeves--the day was very
+warm--with a flat cloth cap over his close-cut hair, and his hands in
+his trousers pockets, or toying restlessly with a piece of straw. The
+parsonage dog had found companions, and the youth followed the dog's
+frolic with his eyes, and gazed at the chickens and at us children as
+though he longed to be one of us. The girl's words, "But don't do him
+any harm," rang in my ears unceasingly--whether he walked about or
+stood still or sat down. I knew that he would certainly be beheaded,
+and, believing that it must be soon, I was filled with horror at the
+thought of his saying to himself, In a month I shall die--and then in a
+week--in a day--an hour... it must be utterly unendurable. I slipped
+behind him to see his neck, and just at that moment he lifted his hand
+up to it, a little brown hand; and I could not get rid of the thought
+that perhaps his fingers would come in the way when the axe was falling.
+
+He and the warders were asked to come in and dine. I felt I must see if
+it were really possible for him to eat. Yes, he ate and chatted just
+like the rest, and for a time I forgot my terror. But no sooner was I
+outside again and alone than I fell to thinking of it with might and
+main, and it seemed to me very hard that her words, "But you mustn't do
+him any harm," should be so utterly disregarded. I felt I must go in
+and say as much to father. But he, slow and serious, and the clerk,
+little and dapper, were walking up and down the room deep in
+conversation, far, far above all my misery. I slipped out again, and
+stroked the coat which Peer had taken off.
+
+The inquiry was held in my schoolroom. My master acted as secretary to
+the court, and I got leave to sit there and listen. For the matter of
+that, the clerk spoke in so loud a voice that it could be heard through
+the open window by every one in the place. The unfortunate youth was
+called upon to account for the entire day on which the murder had been
+committed--for every hour of that Sunday. He denied that he had killed
+her--denied it with the utmost emphasis: "It was not he who had done
+it." The magistrate's examination was both acutely and kindly
+conducted; Peer was moved to tears, but no confession could be drawn
+from him.
+
+"This will be a long business, madam," said the magistrate to my mother
+when the first day's inquiry was over. But later in the evening Peer's
+sister came to the parsonage and remained with him all through the
+night. They were heard whispering and crying unceasingly. In the
+morning Peer was pale and silent; before the court he took all the
+blame upon himself.
+
+The way it had happened, he explained, was that he had been her lover,
+and that his mother had strongly disapproved of the connection. So one
+Sunday as the girl, prayer-book in hand, was going to church, he met
+her in the wood. They sat down, and he asked if she intended to declare
+him the father of the child she was about to bear; for it was in this
+time of sore necessity that she was going to seek consolation in the
+church. She replied that she could accuse no one else. He spoke of the
+shame it would bring on him, and how annoyed his mother already was.
+Yes, yes, she knew that too well. His mother was very angry with her;
+and she thought it strange of Peer that he didn't stand up for her; he
+knew best whose fault it was that all this had happened. But Peer
+hinted that she had been compliant to others as well as to himself, and
+therefore he would not submit to being given out as the child's father.
+He tried to make her angry, but did not succeed, she was so gentle. He
+had an axe lying concealed in the heather near where he sat. He took it
+and struck her on the head from behind. She did not lose consciousness
+at once, but tried to defend herself while she begged for her life. He
+could give no clear account of what happened afterwards. It seemed
+almost as though he himself had lost consciousness. As to the other
+events, he accepted the account of them which had been given in the
+evidence against him.
+
+His sister waited at the parsonage until he came from the examination,
+worn out and with eyes red with weeping. Once more they went aside and
+whispered. I remember nothing more of her than that she held her head
+down and wept a great deal.
+
+ It was in the winter that he was to be executed. The announcement
+was made at such short notice that every one in the house had to bestir
+himself--father was to deliver an exhortation at the place of
+execution, and the Dean, whose parishioner the condemned man was,
+together with the bailiff, had arranged to come to us the day before.
+
+Peer and his warders and a friend, his instructor during the time of
+his imprisonment, schoolmaster Jakobsen, were to sleep down in the
+schoolhouse, which was part of the farm property belonging to the old
+parsonage. Meals were to be carried from our house to the prisoner and
+Jakobsen.
+
+I remember that they came in the morning in two boat-loads from Molde:
+the Dean, the bailiff, the military escort, and the condemned man. But
+I had to sit in the old schoolhouse, and not even later in the day was
+I allowed to go down to where they were.
+
+This prohibition made the whole proceeding the more mysterious. It grew
+dark early. The sea ran black against a whitish and in some places
+bare-swept beach. The ragged clouds chased each other across the sky.
+We were afraid a storm was coming on. Then one of the parsonage
+chimneys caught on fire, and most of the soldiers came rushing up to
+offer help. The great fire-ladder was brought from under the
+storehouse. It was unusually heavy and clumsy, so it was difficult to
+get it raised, till father broke into the midst of the crowd, ordered
+them all to stand back, and set it up by himself. This is still
+remembered in the parish; and also that the bailiff, an active little
+fellow, took a bucket in each hand and went up the ladder till he
+reached the turf roof. The black fjord, the hurrying clouds, the menace
+of the coming day, the blaze of the fire, the bustle and din...and then
+the silence afterwards! People whispered as they moved about the rooms
+and out in the yard, whence they looked down upon the
+schoolhouse-prison where the steady light burned.
+
+Schoolmaster Jacobsen was sitting there now with his friend. They were
+singing and praying together, I heard from those who had been down in
+that direction. Peer's family came in the evening in a boat, went up to
+see him, and took leave of him. I heard how dauntless he was in his
+confidence that the next day he would be with God, and how beautifully
+he talked to his people, and especially how he begged them to take an
+affectionate greeting to his mother, and be good to her as long as she
+lived. Some said she had come in the boat with the rest, but would not
+go up to see him. That was not true, any more than that some of them
+were at the execution the next day, which was also reported.
+
+I wakened the next morning under a weight of apprehension. The weather
+had changed and was fair now, but it felt oppressive nevertheless. No
+one spoke loud, and people said as little as possible. I was to be
+allowed to go with the rest and look on; so I made haste to find my
+tutor, whom I had been told not to leave. The two clergymen came out in
+their cassocks. We went down to the landing-place and rowed the first
+part of the way. The condemned man and his escort had gone on before,
+and waited at the place where we disembarked, in order to walk the
+latter part of the way to the place of execution, a kilometer or so
+distant. The execution had to take place at a cross-roads, and there
+was only one in the neighbourhood--namely, at Ejdsvaag, nearly seven
+miles away from where the murder was committed. The bailiff headed the
+procession, then came the soldiers, then the condemned man, with the
+Dean on one side and my father on the other, then Jacobsen and my
+tutor, with me between them, then some more people, followed by more
+soldiers. We walked cautiously along the slippery road. The clergyman
+talked constantly to the condemned man, who was now very pale. His eyes
+had grown gentle and weary and he said very little. My mother, who had
+been very kind to him, and whom he had thanked for all she had done,
+had sent him a bottle of wine to keep up his strength. The first time
+that my tutor offered him some, he looked at the clergyman as though
+asking if there were anything sinful in accepting it. My father quoted
+St. Paul's advice to Timothy, and instantly he drank off a long draught.
+
+By the wayside stood people curious to see him, and they joined the
+procession as it passed along. Among them were some of his comrades, to
+whom he sorrowfully nodded. Once or twice he lifted his cap, the same
+flat one I had seen him in the first time. It was evident that his
+comrades had a regard for him; and I saw, too, some young women who
+were crying, and made no attempt to conceal it. He walked along with
+his hands clasped at his breast, probably praying.
+
+We were all startled by the captain's loud and commonplace word of
+command, "Attention!" as we reached the appointed place. A body of
+soldiers stood drawn up in a hollow square, which closed in after
+admitting the bailiff, the clergyman, the condemned man, and a few
+besides, among whom was myself. A great silent crowd stood round, and
+over their heads one saw the mounted figure of the sheriff in his
+cocked hat. When the soldiers who came with us, having carried out
+various sharp words of command, had taken their places in the square,
+the further proceedings began by the sheriff's reading aloud the death
+sentence and the royal order for the execution.
+
+The sheriff stationed himself directly in front of the place where some
+planed boards were laid over the grave. At one end of it stood the
+block. On the other side of the grave a platform had been erected, from
+which the Dean was to speak. Peer Hagbo knelt below on the step, with
+his face buried in his hands, close to the feet of his spiritual
+adviser. The Dean was of Danish birth, one of the many who, at the time
+of the separation, had chosen to make their home in Norway. His
+addresses were beautiful to read, but one couldn't always hear him, and
+least of all when he was moved, as was frequently the case. He shouted
+the first words very loud; then his head sank down between his
+shoulders, and he shook it without a pause while he closed his eyes and
+uttered some smothered sounds, catching his breath between them. The
+points of his tall shirt-collar, which reached to the middle of his
+ears (I have never since seen the like), stuck up on each side of the
+bare cropped head with the two double chins underneath, and the whole
+was framed between his shoulders, which, by long practice, he could
+raise much higher than other men. Those who did not know him--for to
+know him was to love him--could hardly keep from laughing. His speech
+was neither heard nor understood, but it was short. His emotion forced
+him to break it off suddenly. One thing alone we all understood: that
+he loved the pale young man whom he had prepared for death, and that he
+wished that all of us might go to our God as happy and confident as he
+who was to die to-day. When he stepped down they embraced each other
+for the last time. Peer gave his hand to my father and to a number
+besides, and then placed himself by his friend Jakobsen. The latter
+knew what this meant. He took off a kerchief and bound Peer's eyes,
+while we saw him whisper something to him and receive a whispered
+answer. Then a man came forward to bind Peer's hands behind his back,
+but he begged to be left free, and his prayer was granted. Then
+Jakobsen took him by the hand and led him forward. At the place where
+Peer was to kneel Jakobsen stopped short, and Peer slowly bent his
+knees. Jakobsen bent Peer's head down until it rested on the block;
+then he drew back and folded his hands. All this I saw, and also that a
+tall man came and took hold of Peer's neck, while a smaller man drew
+forth from a couple of folded towels a shining axe with a remarkably
+broad thin blade. It was then I turned away. I heard the captain's
+horrible "Present arms"; I heard some one praying "Our Father"--perhaps
+it was Peer himself--then a blow that sounded exactly as if it went
+into a great cabbage. At once I looked round again, and saw one leg
+kicking out, and a yard or two beyond the body lay the head, the mouth
+gasping and gasping as if for air.
+
+The executioner's assistant sprang forward and took hold of it by the
+ends of the handkerchief that had bandaged the eyes, and threw it into
+the coffin beside the body, where it fell with a dull sound. The boards
+were laid over the coffined remains, and the whole hastily lifted up
+and lowered into the grave.
+
+Then my father got up on the platform. Every one could understand what
+HE said, and his powerful voice was heard to such a distance that even
+now it is remembered in the district. Following up the thunderous
+admonition of the execution itself, he warned the young against the
+vices which prevailed in the parish--against drunkenness, fighting,
+unchastity, and other misconduct. They must have liked the discourse
+very much, for it was stolen out of the pocket of his gown on the way
+home.
+
+As for me, I left the place as sick at heart, as overwhelmed with
+horror, as if it were my turn to be executed next. Afterwards I
+compared notes with many others, who owned to exactly the same feeling.
+Father and the Dean dined at the captain's with the other officials;
+but they separated and went home directly after dinner.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Absalom's Hair, by Bjornstjerne Bjornson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABSALOM'S HAIR ***
+
+***** This file should be named 5052.txt or 5052.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/5/5052/
+
+Produced by Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/5052.zip b/5052.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b162c92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/5052.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2511029
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #5052 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5052)
diff --git a/old/bslms10.txt b/old/bslms10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51c3ff8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/bslms10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4690 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Absalom's Hair, by Bjornstjerne Bjornson
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Absalom's Hair
+
+Author: Bjornstjerne Bjornson
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5052]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ABSALOM'S HAIR ***
+
+
+
+
+Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+ABSALOM'S HAIR
+
+BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+
+Harald Kaas was sixty.
+
+He had given up his free, uncriticised bachelor life; his yacht
+was no longer seen off the coast in summer; his tours to England
+and the south had ceased; nay, he was rarely to be found even at
+his club in Christiania. His gigantic figure was never seen in the
+doorways; he was failing.
+
+Bandy-legged he had always been, but this defect had increased;
+his herculean back was rounded, and he stooped a little. His
+forehead, always of the broadest--no one else's hat would fit him-
+-was now one of the highest, that is to say, he had lost all his
+hair, except a ragged lock over each ear and a thin fringe behind.
+He was beginning also to lose his teeth, which were strong though
+small, and blackened by tobacco; and now, instead of "deuce take
+it" he said "deush take it."
+
+He had always held his hands half closed as though grasping
+something; now they had stiffened so that he could never open them
+fully. The little finger of his left hand had been bitten off "in
+gratitude" by an adversary whom he had knocked down: according to
+Harald's version of the story, he had compelled the fellow to
+swallow the piece on the spot.
+
+He was fond of caressing the stump, and it often served as an
+introduction to the history of his exploits, which became greater
+and greater as he grew older and quieter.
+
+His small sharp eyes were deep set and looked at one with great
+intensity. There was power in his individuality, and, besides
+shrewd sense, he possessed a considerable gift for mechanics. His
+boundless self-esteem was not devoid of greatness, and the
+emphasis with which both body and soul proclaimed themselves made
+him one of the originals of the country.
+
+Why was he nothing more?
+
+He lived on his estate, Hellebergene, whose large woods skirted
+the coast, while numerous leasehold farms lay along the course of
+the river. At one time this estate had belonged to the Kurt
+family, and had now come back to them, in so far as that Harald's
+father, as every one knew, was not a Kaas at all, but a Kurt; it
+was he who had got the estate together again; a book might be
+written about the ways and means that he had employed.
+
+The house looked out over a bay studded with islands; farther out
+were more islands and the open sea. An immensely long building,
+raised on an old and massive foundation, its eastern wing barely
+half furnished, the western inhabited by Harald Kaas, who lived
+his curious life here.
+
+These wings were connected by two covered galleries, one above the
+other, with stairs at each end.
+
+Curiously enough, these galleries did not face the sea, that is,
+the south, but the fields and woods to the north. The portion of
+the house between the two wings was a neutral territory--namely, a
+large dining-room with a ballroom above it, neither of which was
+used in later years.
+
+Harald Kaas's suite of rooms was distinguished from without by a
+mighty elk's head with its enormous antlers, which was set up over
+the gallery.
+
+In the gallery itself were heads of bear, wolf, fox and lynx, with
+stuffed birds from land and sea. Skins and guns hung on the walls
+of the anteroom, the inner rooms were also full of skins and
+impregnated with the smell of wild animals and tobacco-smoke.
+Harald himself called it "Man-smell;" no one who had once put his
+nose inside could ever forget it.
+
+Valuable and beautiful skins hung on the walls and covered the
+floors; his very bed was nothing else; Harald Kaas lay, and sat,
+and walked on skins, and each one of them was a welcome subject of
+conversation, for he had shot and flayed every single animal
+himself. To be sure, there were those who hinted that most of the
+skins had been bought from Brand and Company, of Bergen, and that
+only the stories were shot and flayed at home.
+
+I for my part think that this was an exaggeration; but be that as
+it may, the effect was equally thrilling when Harald Kaas, seated
+in his log chair by the fireside, his feet on the bearskin, opened
+his shirt to show us the scars on his hairy chest (and what scars
+they were!) which had been made by the bear's teeth, when he had
+driven his knife, right up to the haft, into the monster's heart.
+All the queer tankards, and cupboards, and carved chairs listened
+with their wonted impassiveness.
+
+Harald Kaas was sixty, when, in the month of July, he sailed into
+the bay accompanied by four ladies whom he had brought from the
+steamer--an elderly lady and three young ones, all related to him.
+They were to stay with him until August.
+
+They occupied the upper storey. From it they could hear him
+walking about and grunting below them. They began to feel a little
+nervous. Indeed, three of them had had serious misgivings about
+accepting the invitation; and these misgivings were not diminished
+when, next morning, they saw Kaas composedly strolling up from the
+sea stark naked!
+
+They screamed, and, gathering together, still in their nightgowns,
+held a council of war as to the advisability of leaving at once;
+but when one of them cried "You should not have called us, Aunt,
+and then we should not have seen him," they could not help
+laughing, and therewith the whole affair ended. Certainly they
+were a little stiff at breakfast; but when Harold Kaas began a
+story about an old black mare of his which was in love with a
+young brown horse over at the Dean's, and which plunged madly if
+any other horse came near her, but, on the other hand, put her
+head coaxingly on one side and whinnied "like a dainty girl"
+whenever the parson's horse came that way--well, at that they had
+to give in, as well first as last.
+
+If they had strayed here out of curiosity they must just put up
+with the "NIGHT side of nature," as Harald Kaas expressed it, with
+the stress on the first word.
+
+For all that they were nearly frightened out of their wits the
+very next night, when he discharged his gun right under their
+windows. The aunt even asserted that he had shot through her open
+casement. She screamed loudly, and the others, starting from their
+sleep, were out on the floor before they knew where they were.
+Then they crouched in the windows and peeped out, although their
+aunt declared that they would certainly be shot--they really must
+see what it was.
+
+Yes! there they saw him among the cherry and apple trees, gun in
+hand, and they could hear him swearing. In the greatest
+trepidation they crept back into bed again. Next morning they
+learned that he had shot at some night prowlers, one of whom had
+got "half the charge in his leg, that he had, Deush take him! It
+ain't the prowling I mind, but that he should prowl here. We
+bachelors will have no one poaching on our preserves."
+
+The four ladies sat as stiff as four church candles, till at
+length one of them sprang up with a scream, the others joining in
+chorus.
+
+The visitors were not bored; Harald Kaas dealt too much in the
+unexpected for that. There was a charm, too, in the great woods,
+where there had been no felling since he had come into the
+property, and there were merry walks by the riverside and plenty
+of fish in the river.
+
+They bathed, they took delightful sails in the cutter and drives
+about the neighbourhood, though certainly the turn-out was none of
+the smartest.
+
+The youngest of the girls, Kristen Ravn, presently became less
+eager to join in these expeditions. She had fallen in love with
+the disused east wing of the house, and there she spent many a
+long hour, alone by the open window, gazing out at the great lime-
+trees which stood straggling, gaunt, and mysterious.
+
+"You ought to build a balcony here, out towards the sea," she
+said. "Look how the water glitters between the limes."
+
+When once she had hit upon a plan, Kristen Ravn never relinquished
+it, and when she bad suggested it some four or five times, he
+promised that it should be done. But on the heels of this scheme
+came another.
+
+"Below the first balcony there must be another wider one," said
+she in her soft voice, "and it must have steps at each end down to
+the lawn--the lawn is so lovely just here."
+
+The unheard-of presumption of her demand inoculated him with the
+idea, and at length he consented to this as well.
+
+"The rooms must be refurnished," she gravely commanded. "The one
+next to the balcony which is to be built under here shall be in
+yellow pine, and the floor must be polished." She pointed with her
+long delicate hand. "ALL the floors must be polished. I will give
+you the design for the room above, I have thought it carefully
+out." And in imagination she papered the walls, arranged the
+furniture, and hung up curtains of wondrous patterns.
+
+"I know, too, how the other rooms are to be done," she added. And
+she went from one to the other, remaining a little while in each.
+He followed, like an old horse led by the bridle.
+
+Before their visit was half over he most coolly neglected three
+out of his four guests.
+
+His deep-set eyes twinkled with the liveliest admiration whenever
+she approached. He sought in the faces of the others the
+admiration which he himself felt: he would amble round her like an
+old photographic camera which had the power of setting itself up.
+
+But from the day when she took down from his bookshelf a French
+work on mechanics, a subject with which she was evidently
+acquainted and for which she declared that she had a natural
+aptitude, it was all over with him. From that day forward, if she
+were present, he effaced himself both in word and action.
+
+In the mornings when he met her in one of her characteristic
+costumes he laughed softly, or gazed and gazed at her, and then
+glanced towards the others. She did not talk much, but every word
+that she uttered aroused his admiration. But he was most of all
+captivated when she sat quietly apart, heedless of every one: at
+such times he resembled an old parrot expectant of sugar.
+
+His linen had always been snowy white, but beyond this he had
+taken no special pains with his toilet; but now he strutted about
+in a Tussore silk coat, which he had bought in Algiers, but had at
+once put aside because it was too tight--he looked like a clipt
+box hedge in it.
+
+Now, who was this lion-tamer of twenty-one, who, without in the
+least wishing to do so, unconsciously even (she was the quietest
+of the party), had made the monarch of the forest crouch at her
+feet and gaze at her in abject humility?
+
+Look at her, as she sits there, with her loose shining hair of the
+prettiest shade of dark red; look at her broad forehead and
+prominent nose, but more than all at those large wondering eyes;
+look at her throat and neck, her tall slight figure; notice
+especially the Renaissance dress which she wears, its style and
+colour, and your curiosity will still remain unsatisfied, for she
+has an individuality all her own.
+
+Kristen Ravn had lost her mother at her birth and her father when
+she was five years old. The latter left her a handsome fortune,
+with the express condition that the investments should not be
+changed, and that the income should be for her own use whether she
+married or not. He hoped by this means to form her character. She
+was brought up by three different members of her wide-branching
+family, a family which might more properly be termed a clan,
+although they had no common characteristics beyond a desire to go
+their own way.
+
+When two Ravns meet they, as a rule, differ on every subject; but
+as a race they hold religiously together--indeed, in their eyes
+there is no other family which is "amusing," the favourite
+adjective of the Ravns.
+
+Kristen had a receptive nature; she read everything, and
+remembered what she read; that is say, she had a logical mind, for
+a retentive memory implies an orderly brain. She was consequently
+NUMBER ONE in everything which she took up. This, coupled with the
+fact that she lived among those who regarded her somewhat as a
+speculation, and consequently flattered her, had early made an
+impression on her nature, quite as great, indeed, as the
+possession of money.
+
+She was by no means proud, it was not in the Ravn nature to be so;
+but at ten years old she had left off playing; she preferred to
+wander in the woods and compose ballads. At twelve she insisted on
+wearing silk dresses, and, in the teeth of an aunt all curls and
+lace and with a terrible flow of words, she carried her point. She
+held herself erect and prim in her silks, and still remained
+NUMBER ONE. She composed verses about Sir Adge and Maid Else,
+about birds and flowers and sad things.
+
+On reaching the age at which other girls, who have the means,
+begin to wear silk dresses, she left them off. She was tired, she
+said, of the "smooth and glossy."
+
+She now grew enthusiastic for fine wool and expensive velvet of
+every shade. Dresses in the Renaissance style became her
+favourites, and the subject of her studies. She puffed out her
+bodices like those in Leonardo's and Rafael's portraits of women,
+and tried in other ways as well to resemble them.
+
+She left off writing verses, and wrote stories instead; the style
+was good, though they were anything rather than spontaneous.
+
+They were short, with a more or less clear pointe. Stories by a
+girl of eighteen do not as a general rule make a sensation, but
+these were particularly audacious. It was evident that their only
+object was to scandalise. Instead of her own name she used the
+nom-de-plume of "Puss." This, however, was only to postpone the
+announcement that the author who scandalised her readers most, and
+that at a time when every author strove to do so, was a girl of
+eighteen belonging to one of the first families in the country.
+
+Soon every one knew that "Puss" was she of the tumbled red locks,
+"the tall Renaissance figure with the Titian hair."
+
+Her hair was abundant, glossy, and slightly curling; she still
+wore it hanging loose over her neck and shoulders, as she had done
+as a child. Her great eyes seemed to look out upon a new world;
+but one felt that the lower part of her face was scarcely in
+harmony with the upper. The cheeks fell in a little; the prominent
+nose made the mouth look smaller than it actually was; her neck
+seemed only to lead the eye downward to her bosom, which almost
+appeared to caress her throat, especially when her head was bent
+forward, as was generally the case. And very beautiful the throat
+was, delicate in colour, superb in contour, and admirably set upon
+the bust. For this reason she could never find in her heart to
+hide this full white neck, but always kept it uncovered. Her
+finely moulded bust surmounting a slender waist and small hips,
+her rounded arms, her long hands, her graceful carriage, in her
+tightly-fitting dress, formed such a striking picture that one did
+more than look--one was obliged to study her, When the elegance
+and beauty of her dress were taken into account, one realised how
+much intelligence and artistic taste had here been exercised.
+
+She was friendly in society, natural and composed, always occupied
+with something, always with that wondering expression. She spoke
+very little, but her words were always well chosen.
+
+All this, and her general disposition, made people chary of
+opposing her, more especially those who knew how intelligent she
+was and how much knowledge she possessed.
+
+She had no friends of her own, but her innumerable relations
+supplied her with society, gossip, and flattery, and were at once
+her friends and body-guard. She would have had to go abroad to be
+alone.
+
+Among these relations she was a princess: they not only paid her
+homage, but had sworn by "Life and Death" that she must marry
+without more ado, which was absolutely against her wish.
+
+From her childhood she had been laying by money, but the amount of
+her savings was far less than her relations supposed. This rather
+mythical fortune contributed not a little to the fact that "every
+one" was in love with her. Not only the bachelors of the family,
+that was a matter of course, but artists and amateurs, even the
+most blase, swarmed round her, la jeunesse doree (which is homely
+enough in Norway), without an exception. A living work of art,
+worth more or less money, piquante and admired, how each longed to
+carry her home, to gloat over her, to call her his own!
+
+There was surely more intensity of feeling near her than near
+others, a losing of oneself in one only; that unattainable dream
+of the world-weary.
+
+With her one could lead a thoroughly stylish life, full of art and
+taste and comfort. She was highly cultivated, and absolutely
+emancipated--our little country did not, in those days, possess a
+more alluring expression.
+
+When face to face with her they were uncertain how to act, whether
+to approach her diffidently or boldly, smile or look serious, talk
+or be silent.
+
+What these idle wooers gleaned from her stories, her
+characteristic dress, her wondering eyes, and her quiet
+dreaminess, was not the highest, but they expended their energy
+thereon; so that their unbounded discomfiture may be imagined
+when, in the autumn, the news spread that Fruken Kristen Ravn was
+married to Harald Kaas.
+
+They burst into peals of derisive laughter they scoffed, they
+exclaimed; the only explanation they could offer was that they had
+too long hesitated to try their fortune.
+
+There were others, who both knew and admired her, who were no less
+dismayed. They were more than disappointed--the word is too weak;
+to many of them it seemed simply deplorable. How on earth could it
+have happened? Every one, herself excepted, knew that it would
+ruin her life.
+
+On Kristen Ravn's independent position, her strong character, her
+rare courage, on her knowledge, gifts, and energy, many,
+especially women, had built up a future for the cause of Woman.
+Had she not already written fearlessly for it? Her tendency
+towards eccentricity and paradox would soon have worn off, they
+thought, as the struggle carried her forward, and at last she
+might have become one of the first champions of the cause. All
+that was noblest and best in Kristen must predominate in the end.
+
+And now the few who seek to explain life's perplexities rather
+than to condemn them discovered--Some of them, that the defiant
+tone of her writings and her love of opposition bespoke a degree
+of vanity sufficient to have led her into fallacy. Others
+maintained that hers was essentially a romantic nature which might
+cause her to form a false estimate both of her own powers and of
+the circumstances of life. Others, again, had heard something of
+how this husband and wife lived, one in each wing of the house,
+with different staffs of servants, and with separate incomes; that
+she had furnished her side in her own way, at her own expense, and
+had apparently conceived the idea of a new kind of married life.
+Some people declared that the great lime-trees near the mansion at
+Hellebergene were alone responsible for the marriage. They soughed
+so wondrously in the summer evenings, and the sea beneath their
+branches told such enthralling stories. Those grand old woods, the
+like of which were hardly to be found in impoverished Norway, were
+far dearer to her than was her husband. Her imagination had been
+taken captive by the trees, and thus Harald Kaas had taken HER.
+The estate, the climate, the exclusive possession of her part of
+the house: this was the bait which she had chosen. Harald Kaas was
+only a kind of Puck who had to be taken along with it. But it is
+doubtful whether this conjecture was any nearer the truth. No one
+ever really knew. She was not one of those whom it is easy to
+catechise.
+
+Every one wearies at last of trying to solve even the most
+interesting of enigmas. No one could tolerate the sound of her
+name when, four months after her marriage, she was seen in a stall
+at the Christiania Theatre just as in old days, though looking
+perhaps a little paler. Every opera-glass was levelled at her. She
+wore a light, almost white, dress, cut square as usual. She did
+not hide her face behind her fan. She looked about her with her
+wondering eyes, as though she was quite unconscious that there
+were other people in the theatre or that any one could be looking
+at her. Even the most pertinacious were forced to concede that she
+was both physically and mentally unique, with a charm all her own.
+
+But just as she had become once more the subject of general
+conversation, she disappeared. It afterwards transpired that her
+husband had fetched her away, though hardly any one had seen him.
+It was concluded that they must have had their first quarrel over
+it.
+
+Accurate information about their joint life was never obtained.
+The attempts of her relations to force themselves upon them were
+quite without result, except that they found out that she was
+enceinte, notwithstanding her utmost efforts to conceal the fact.
+
+She sent neither letter nor announcement; but in the summer, when
+she was next seen in Christiania, she was wheeling a perambulator
+along Karl Johan Street, her eyes as wondering as though some one
+had just put it between her hands. She looked handsomer and more
+blooming than ever.
+
+In the perambulator lay a boy with his mother's broad forehead,
+his mother's red hair. The child was charmingly dressed, and he,
+as well as the perambulator, was so daintily equipped, so
+completely in harmony with herself, that every one understood the
+reply that she gave, when, after the usual congratulations, her
+acquaintances inquired, "Shall we soon have a new story from
+you?"--she answered, "A new story? Here it is!"
+
+But, notwithstanding the unalloyed happiness which she displayed
+here, it could no longer be concealed that more often than not she
+was absent from home, and that she never mentioned her husband's
+name. If any one spoke of him to her, she changed the subject. By
+the time that the boy was a year old, it had become evident that
+she contemplated leaving Hellebergene entirely. She had been in
+Christiania for some time and had gone home to make arrangements,
+saying that she should come back in a few days.
+
+But she never did so.
+
+The day after her return home, while the numerous servants at
+Hellebergene, as well as the labourers with their wives and
+children, were all assembled at the potato digging, Harald Kaas
+appeared, carrying his wife under his left arm like a sack. He
+held her round the waist, feet first, her face downwards and
+hidden by her hair, her hands convulsively clutching his left
+thigh, her legs sometimes hanging down, sometimes straight out. He
+walked composedly out with her, holding in his right hand a bunch
+of long fresh birch twigs. A little way from the gallery he
+paused, and laying her across his left knee, he tore off some of
+her clothes, and beat her until the blood flowed. She never
+uttered a sound. When he put her from him, she tremblingly
+rearranged--first her hair, thus displaying her face just as the
+blood flowed back from it, leaving it deadly white. Tears of pain
+and shame rolled down her cheeks; but still not a sound. She tried
+to rearrange her dress, but her tattered garments trailed behind
+her as she went back to the house. She shut the door after her,
+but had to open it again; her torn clothes had caught fast in it.
+
+The women stood aghast; some of the children screamed with fright:
+this infected the rest, and there was a chorus of sobs. The men,
+most of whom had been sitting smoking their pipes, but who had
+sprung to their feet again, stood filled with shame and
+indignation.
+
+It had not been without a pang that Harald Kaas had done this, his
+face and manner had shown it for a long time and still did so; but
+he had expected that a roar of laughter would greet his
+extraordinary vagary. This was evident from the composure with
+which he had carried his wife out; and still more from the glance
+of gratified revenge with which he looked round him afterwards.
+But there was only dead stillness, succeeded by weeping, sobbing,
+and indignation. He stood there for a moment, quite overcome, then
+went indoors again, a defeated, utterly broken man.
+
+In every encounter with this delicate creature the giant had been
+worsted.
+
+After this, however, she never went beyond the grounds. For the
+first few years she was only seen by the people about the estate,
+and by them but seldom. Sometimes she would take her boy out in
+his little carriage, or, as time went on, would lead him by the
+hand, sometimes she was alone. She was generally wrapped in a big
+shawl, a different one for each dress she wore, and which she
+always held tightly round her. This was so characteristic of her
+that to this day I hear people from the neighbourhood talk about
+it as though she were never seen otherwise.
+
+What then did she do? She studied; she had given up writing: for
+more than one reason it had become distasteful to her. She had
+changed roles with her husband, giving herself up to mathematics,
+chemistry, and physics, she made calculations and analyses--
+sending for books and materials for these objects. The people on
+the estate saw nothing extraordinary in all this. From the first
+they had admired her delicacy and beauty. Every one admired her;
+it was only the manner and degree that varied.
+
+Little by little she came to be regarded as one whose life and
+thoughts were beyond their comprehension.
+
+She sought no one, but to those who came to her she never refused
+help--more or less. She made herself well acquainted with the
+facts of each case; no one could ever deceive her. Whether she
+gave much or little, she imposed no conditions, she never lectured
+them. Her opinion was expressed by the amount that she gave.
+
+Her husband's behaviour towards her was such that, had she not
+been very popular, she could not have remained at Hellebergene;
+that is to say, he opposed and thwarted her in every way he could;
+but every one took her part.
+
+The boy! Could not he have been a bond of union? On the contrary,
+there were those who declared that it was from the time of his
+birth that things had gone amiss between the parents. The first
+time that his father saw him the nurse reported that he "came in
+like a lord and went out like a beggar!" The mother lay down again
+and laughed; the nurse had never seen the like of it before. Had
+he expected that his child must of necessity resemble him, only to
+find it the image of its mother?
+
+When the boy was old enough he loved to wander across to his
+father's rooms where there were so many curious things to see; his
+father always received him kindly, talking in a way suited to his
+childish intelligence, but he would take occasion to cut away a
+quantity of his hair. His mother let it grow free and long like
+her own, and his father perpetually cut it. The boy would have
+been glad enough to be rid of it, but when he grew a little older,
+he comprehended his father's motive, and thenceforth he was on his
+guard.
+
+When the people on the estate had told him something of his
+father's highly-coloured histories of his feats of strength and
+his achievements by land and water, the boy began to feel a shy
+admiration for him, but at the same time he felt all the more
+strongly the intolerable yoke which he laid upon them--upon every
+living being on the estate. It became a secret religion with him
+to oppose his father and help his mother, for it was she who
+suffered. He would resemble her even to his hair, he would protect
+her, he would make it all up to her. It was a positive delight to
+him when his father made him suffer: he absolutely felt proud when
+he called him Rafaella, instead of Rafael, the name which his
+mother had chosen for him; it was the one that she loved best.
+
+No one was allowed to use the boats or the carriage, no one might
+walk through the woods, which had been fenced in, the horses were
+never taken out. No repairs were undertaken; if Fru Kaas attempted
+to have anything done at her own expense, the workmen were ordered
+off: there could no longer be any doubt about it, he wished
+everything to go to rack and ruin. The property went from bad to
+worse, and the woods--well! It was no secret, every one on the
+place talked about it--the timber was being utterly ruined. The
+best and largest trees were already rotten; by degrees the rest
+would become so.
+
+At twelve years of age Rafael began to receive religious teaching
+from the Dean: the only subject in which his mother did not
+instruct him. He shared these lessons with Helene, the Dean's only
+child, who was four years younger than Rafael and of whom he was
+devotedly fond.
+
+The Dean told them the story of David. The narrative was unfolded
+with additions and explanations; the boy made a picture of it to
+himself; his mother had taught him everything in this way.
+
+Assyrian warriors with pointed beards, oblique eyes, and oblong
+shields, had to represent the Israelites; they marched by in an
+endless procession. He saw the blue-green of the vineyards on the
+hillside, the shadow of the dusty palm-trees upon the dusty road.
+Then a wood of aromatic trees into which all the warriors fled.
+
+Then followed the story of Absalom.
+
+"Absalom rebelled against his father, what a dreadful thing to
+think of," said the Dean. "A grown-up man to rebel against his
+father." He chanced to look towards Rafael, who turned as red as
+fire.
+
+The thought which was constantly in his mind was that when he was
+grown up he should rebel against his father.
+
+"But Absalom was punished in a marvellous manner," continued the
+Dean. "He lost the battle, and as he fled through the woods, his
+long hair caught in a tree, the horse ran away from under him, and
+he was left hanging there until he was run through by a spear."
+
+Rafael could see Absalom hanging there, not in the long Assyrian
+garments, not with a pointed beard. No! Slender and young, in
+Rafael's tight-fitting breeches and stockings, and with his own
+red hair! Ah! how distinctly he saw it! The horse galloping far
+away--the grey one at home which he used to ride by stealth when
+his father was asleep after dinner. He could see the tall, slender
+lad, dangling and swaying, with a spear through his body.
+Distinctly! Distinctly!
+
+This vision, which he never mentioned to a soul, he could not get
+rid of. To be left hanging there by his hair--what a strange
+punishment for rebelling against his father!
+
+Certainly he already knew the history, but till now he had paid no
+special heed to it.
+
+It was on a Friday that this great impression had been made on
+him, and on the following Thursday morning he awoke to see his
+mother standing over him with her most wondering expression. Her
+hair still as she had plaited it for the night; one plait had
+touched him on the nose and awoke him before she spoke. She stood
+bending over him, in her long white nightgown with its dainty lace
+trimming, and with bare feet. She would never have come in like
+that if something terrible had not happened. Why did she not
+speak? only look and look--or was she really frightened?
+
+"Mother!" he cried, sitting up.
+
+Then she bent close down to him. "THE MAN IS DEAD," she whispered.
+It was his father whom she called "the man," she never spoke of
+him otherwise.
+
+Rafael did not comprehend what she said, or perhaps it paralysed
+him. She repeated it again louder and louder, "The man is dead,
+the man is dead."
+
+Then she stood upright, and putting out her bare feet from under
+her nightgown, she began to dance--only a few steps; and then she
+slipped away through the door which stood half open. He jumped up
+and ran after her; there she lay on the sofa, sobbing. She felt
+that he was behind her, she raised herself quickly, and, still
+sobbing, pressed him to her heart.
+
+Even when they stood together beside the body, the hand which he
+had in his shook so that he threw his arms round her, thinking
+that she would fall.
+
+Later in life, when he recalled this, he understood what she had
+silently endured, what an unbending will she had brought to the
+struggle, but also what it had cost her.
+
+At the time he did not in the least comprehend it. He imagined
+that she suffered from the horror of the moment as he himself did.
+
+There lay the giant, in wretchedness and squalor! He who had once
+boasted of his cleanliness, and expected the like in others, lay
+there, dirty and unshaven, under dirty bed clothes, in linen so
+ragged and filthy that no workman on the estate had worse. The
+clothes which he had worn the day before lay on a chair beside the
+bed, miserably threadbare, foul with dirt, sweat, and tobacco, and
+stinking like everything else. His mouth was distorted, his hands
+tightly clenched; he had died of a stroke.
+
+And how forlorn and desolate was all around him! Why had his son
+never noticed this before? Why had he never felt that his father
+was lonely and forsaken? To how great an extent no words could
+express.
+
+Rafael burst into tears; louder and louder grew his sobbing, until
+it sounded through all the rooms. The people from the estate came
+in one by one. They wished to satisfy their curiosity.
+
+The boy's crying, unconsciously to himself, influenced them all:
+they saw everything in a new light. How unfortunate, how desolate,
+how helpless had he been who now lay there. Lord, have mercy on us
+all!
+
+When the corpse of Harald Kaas had been laid out, the face shaved,
+and the eyes closed, the distortion was less apparent. They could
+trace signs of suffering, but the expression was still virile. It
+seemed a handsome face to them now
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+
+Within a few days of the funeral mother and son were in England.
+
+Rafael was now to enter upon a long course of study, for which, by
+his earlier education, his mother had prepared him, and for which,
+by painful privations, she had saved up sufficient money.
+
+The property was to the last degree impoverished, and burdened
+with mortgages, and the timber only fit for fuel.
+
+Their neighbour the Dean, a clear-headed and practical man, took
+upon himself the management of affairs; as money was needed the
+work of devastation must begin at once. The mother and son did not
+wish to witness it.
+
+They came to England like two fugitives who, after many and great
+trials, for affection's sake seek a new home and a new country.
+
+Rafael was then twelve years old.
+
+They were inseparable, and in the shiftless life that they led in
+their new surroundings they became, if possible, more closely
+attached to each other.
+
+Yet not long afterwards they had their first disagreement.
+
+He had gone to school, had begun to learn the language and to make
+friends, and had developed a great desire to show off.
+
+He was very tall and slender and was anxious to be athletic. He
+took an active part in the play-ground, but here he achieved no
+great success. On the other hand, thanks to his mother, he was
+better informed than his comrades, and he contrived to obtain
+prominence by this. This prominence must be maintained, and
+nothing answered so well as boasting about Norway and his father's
+exploits. His statements were somewhat exaggerated, but that was
+not altogether his fault, He knew English fairly well, but had not
+mastered its niceties. He made use of superlatives, which always
+come the most readily. It was true that he had inherited from his
+father twenty guns, a large sailing-boat, and several smaller
+ones; but how magnificent these boats and guns had become!
+
+He intended to go to the North Pole, he said, as his father had
+done, to shoot white bears, and invited them all to come with him.
+
+He made a greater impression on his hearers than he himself was
+aware of; but something more was wanted, for it was impossible to
+foretell from day to day what might be expected of him. He had to
+study hard in order to meet the demand.
+
+As an outcome of this, he betook himself one evening to the
+hairdresser's, with some of his schoolfellows, and, without more
+ado, requested him to cut his hair quite close. That ought to
+satisfy them for a long time.
+
+The other boys had teased him about his hair, and it got in the
+way when he was playing--he hated it. Besides, ever since the
+story of Absalom's rebellion and punishment, it had remained a
+secret terror to him, but it had never before occurred to him to
+have it cut off.
+
+His schoolfellows were dismayed, and the hairdresser looked on it
+as a work of wilful destruction.
+
+Rafael felt his heart begin to sink, but the very audacity of the
+thing gave him courage They should see what he dare do. The
+hairdresser hesitated to act without Fru Kaas's knowledge, but at
+length he ceased to make objections.
+
+Rafael's heart sank lower and lower, but he must go through with
+it now. "Off with it," he said, and remained immovable in the
+chair.
+
+"I have never seen more splendid hair," said the hairdresser
+diffidently, taking up the scissors but still hesitating.
+
+Rafael saw that his companions were on the tiptoe of expectation.
+"Off with it," he said again with assumed indifference.
+
+The hairdresser cut the hair into his hand and laid it carefully
+in paper.
+
+The boys followed every snip of the scissors with their eyes,
+Rafael with his ears; he could not see in the glass.
+
+When the hairdresser had finished and had brushed his clothes for
+him, he offered him the hair. "What do I want with it?" said
+Rafael. He dusted his elbows and knees a little, paid, and left
+the shop, followed by his companions. They, however, exhibited no
+particular admiration. He caught a glimpse of himself in the glass
+as he went out, and thought that he looked frightful.
+
+He would have given all that he possessed (which was not much), he
+would have endured any imaginable suffering, he thought, to have
+his hair back again.
+
+His mother's wondering eyes rose up before him with every shade of
+expression; his misery pursued him, his vanity mocked him. The end
+of it all was that he stole up to his room and went to bed without
+his supper.
+
+But when his mother had vainly waited for him, and some one
+suggested that he might be in the house, she went to his room.
+
+He heard her on the stairs; he felt that she was at the door. When
+she entered he had hidden his head beneath the bedclothes. She
+dragged them back; and at the first sight of her dismay he was
+reduced to such despair that the tears which were beginning to
+flow ceased at once.
+
+White and horror-struck she stood there; indeed she thought at
+first that some one had done it maliciously; but when she could
+not extract a word of enlightenment, she suspected mischief.
+
+He felt that she was waiting for an explanation, an excuse, a
+prayer for forgiveness, but he could not, for the life of him, get
+out a word.
+
+What, indeed, could he say? He did not understand it himself. But
+now he began to cry violently. He huddled himself together,
+clasping his head between his hands. It felt like a bristly
+stubble.
+
+When he looked up again his mother was gone.
+
+A child sleeps in spite of everything. He came down the next
+morning in a contrite mood and thoroughly shamefaced. His mother
+was not up; she was unwell, for she had not slept a wink. He heard
+this before he went to her. He opened her door timidly. There she
+lay, the picture of wretchedness.
+
+On the toilet-table, in a white silk handkerchief, was his hair,
+smoothed and combed.
+
+She lay there in her lace-trimmed nightgown, great tears rolling
+down her cheeks. He had come, intending to throw himself into her
+arms and beg her pardon a thousand times. But he had a strong
+feeling that he had better not do so, or was he afraid to? She was
+in the clouds, far, far away. She seemed in a trance: something,
+at once painful and sacred, held her enchained. She was both
+pathetic and sublime,
+
+The boy stepped quietly from the room and hurried off to school.
+
+She remained in bed that day and the next, and made him sit with
+the servant in order that she might be alone. When she was in
+trouble she always behaved thus, and that he should cross her in
+this way was the greatest trial that she had ever known. It came
+upon her, too, like a deluge of rain from a clear sky. NOW it
+seemed to her that she could foresee his future--and her own.
+
+She laid the blame of all this on his paternal ancestry. She could
+not see that incessant artistic fuss and too much intellectual
+training had, perhaps, aroused in him a desire for independence.
+
+The first time that she saw him again with his cropped head, which
+grew more and more like his father's in shape, her tears flowed
+quietly.
+
+When he wished to come to her side, she waived him back with her
+shapely hand, nor would she talk to him; when he talked she hardly
+looked at him; till at last he burst into tears. For he suffered
+as one can suffer but once, when the childish penitence is fresh
+and therefore boundless, and when the yearning for love has
+received its first rebuff.
+
+But when, on the fifth day, she met him coming up the stairs, she
+stood still in dismay at his appearance: pale, thin, timid; the
+effect perhaps heightened by the loss of his hair. He, too, stood
+still, looking forlorn and abject, with disconsolate eyes. Then
+hers filled; she stretched out her arms. He was once more in his
+Paradise, but they both cried as though they must wade through an
+ocean of tears before they could talk to each other again.
+
+"Tell me about it now," she whispered. This was in her own room.
+They had spoken the first fond words and kissed each other over
+and over again. "How could this have happened, Rafael?" she
+whispered again, with her head pressed to his; she did not wish to
+look at him while she spoke.
+
+"Mother," he answered, "it is worse to cut down the woods at home,
+at Hellebergene, than that I--"
+
+She raised her head and looked at him. She had taken off her hat
+and gloves, but now she put them quickly on again.
+
+"Rafael, dear," she said, "shall we go for a walk together in the
+park, under the grand old trees?"
+
+She had felt his retort to be ingenious.
+
+After this episode, however, England, and more especially her
+son's schoolfellows, became distasteful to her, and she constantly
+made plans to keep him away from the latter out of school hours.
+
+She found this very easy; sometimes she went over his studies with
+him, at others they visited all the Manufactories and "Works" for
+miles round.
+
+She liked to see for herself and awakened the same taste in him.
+
+Factories which, as a rule, were closed to visitors, were readily
+opened to the pretty elegant lady and her handsome boy, "who after
+all knew nothing at all about it;" and they were able to see
+almost all that they wished. It was a less congenial task to use
+her influence to turn his thoughts to higher things, but it was
+rarely, nevertheless, that she failed. She struggled hard over
+what she did not understand and sought for help. To explain these
+things to Rafael in the most attractive manner possible became a
+new occupation for her.
+
+His natural disposition inclined him to such studies; but to a boy
+of thirteen, who was thus kept from his comrades and their sports,
+it soon became a nuisance.
+
+No sooner had Fru Kaas noticed this than she took active steps.
+They left England and crossed to France.
+
+The strange speech threw him back on her; no one shared him with
+her. They settled in Calais. A few days after their arrival she
+cut her hair short; she hoped that it would touch him to see that
+as he would not look like her, she tried to look like him--to be
+a. boy like him. She bought a smart new hat, she composed a jaunty
+costume, new from top to toe, for EVERYTHING must be altered with
+the hair. But when she stood before him, looking like a girl of
+twenty-five, merry, almost boisterous, he was simply dismayed--
+nay, it was some time before he could altogether comprehend what
+had happened. As long as he could remember his mother, her eyes
+had always looked forth from beneath a crown; more solemn, more
+beautiful.
+
+"Mother," he said, "where are you?"
+
+She grew pale and grave, and stammered something about its being
+more comfortable--about red hair not looking well when it began to
+lose its colour--and went into her room. There she sat with his
+hair before her and her own beside it; she wept.
+
+"Mother, where are you?" She might have answered, "Rafael, where
+are you?"
+
+She went about with him everywhere. In France two handsome,
+stylishly dressed people are always certain to be noticed, a thing
+which she thoroughly appreciated.
+
+During their different expeditions she always spoke French; he
+begged her to talk Norse at least now and then, but all in vain.
+
+Here, too, they visited every possible and impossible factory.
+Unpractical and reserved as she was on ordinary occasions, she
+could be full of artifice and coquetry whenever she wished to gain
+access to a steam bakery and particular as she generally was about
+her toilette, she would come away again sooty and grimy if thereby
+she could procure for Rafael some insight into mechanics. She
+shrank from foul air as from the cholera, yet inhaled sulphuric
+acid gas as though it had been ozone for his sake.
+
+"Seeing for yourself, Rafael, is the substance, other methods are
+its shadow;" or "Seeing for yourself, Rafael, is meat and drink,
+the other is but literature."
+
+He was not quite of the same opinion: he thought that Notre Dame
+de Paris, from which he was daily dragged away, was the richest
+banquet that he had yet enjoyed, while from the factory of Mayel
+et fils there issued the most deadly odours.
+
+His reading--she had encouraged him in it for the sake of the
+language and had herself helped him; now she was jealous of it and
+could not be persuaded to get him new books; but he got them
+nevertheless.
+
+They had been in Calais for several months; he had masters and was
+beginning to feel himself at home, when there arrived at the
+pension a widow from one of the colonies, accompanied by her
+daughter, a girl of thirteen.
+
+The new comers had not appeared at meals for more than two days
+before the young gentleman began to pay his court to the young
+lady. From the first moment it was a plain case. Very soon every
+one in the pension was highly amused to notice how fluent his
+French was becoming; his choice of words at times was even
+elegant! The girl taught him it without a trace of grammar, by
+charm, sprightliness, a little nonsense; a pair of confiding eyes
+and a youthful voice were sufficient. It was from her that he got,
+by stealth, one novel after another. By stealth it had to be; by
+stealth Lucie had procured them; by stealth she gave them to him;
+by stealth they were read; by stealth she took them back again.
+This reading made him a little absent-minded, but otherwise
+nothing betrayed his flights into literature: to be sure, they
+were not very wonderful.
+
+Fru Kaas noticed her son's flirtation, and smiled with the rest
+over his progress in French. She had less objection to this
+friendship, in which, to a great extent, she shared, than to those
+in England, from which she had been quite excluded. In the
+evenings she would take the mother and daughter out for short
+excursions; and these she greatly enjoyed. But the novel reading
+which the young people carried on secretly had resulted in
+conversations of a "grown up" type. They talked of love with the
+deep experience which is proper to their age, they talked with
+still greater discretion as to when their wedding should take
+place; on this point they indirectly said much which caused them
+many a delightful tremor. As they were accustomed to talk about
+themselves before others, to describe their feelings in a veiled
+form, it often happened when there were many people near that they
+carried this amusement further, and before they were themselves
+aware of it, they were in the full tide of a symbolic language and
+played "catch" with each other.
+
+Fru Kaas noticed one evening that the word "rose" was drawn out to
+a greater length than it was possible for any rose to attain to;
+at the same time she saw the languishing look in their eyes, and
+broke in with the question, "What do you mean about the rose,
+child?"
+
+If any one had peeped behind a rose-bush and caught them kissing
+one another, a thing they had never done, they could not have
+blushed more.
+
+The next day Fru Kaas found new rooms, a long way from the quay
+near which they were living.
+
+Rafael had suffered greatly at being torn away from England just
+as he had come down from his high horse and had put himself on a
+par with his companions, but not the least notice was taken of his
+trouble; it had only annoyed his mother.
+
+To be absolutely debarred from the books he was so fond of had
+been hard; but up to this time, being in a foreign land, amid
+foreign speech, he had always fallen back upon her. Now he openly
+defied her. He went straight off to the hotel and sought out
+Madame Mery and her daughter as though nothing had occurred. This
+he did every day when he had finished his lessons. Lucie had now
+become his sole romance; he gave all his leisure time to her, and
+not only that (for it no longer sufficed to see her at her
+mother's), they met on the quay! At times a maid-servant walked
+with them for appearance sake, at others she kept in the
+background. Sometimes they would go on board a Norwegian ship,
+sometimes they wandered about or strolled beneath some great
+trees. When he saw her in her short frock come out of the door,
+saw her quick movements, and her lively signals to him with
+parasol or hat or flowers, the quay, the ships, the bales, the
+barrels, the air, the noise, the crowd, all seemed to play and
+sing,
+
+  "Enfant! si j'etais roi je donerais l'empire,
+   Et mon char, et mon septre, et mon peuple a genoux,"
+
+and he ran to meet her.
+
+He never dared to do more than to take both her chubby brown
+hands, nor to say more than "You are very sweet, you are very very
+good." And she never went further than to look at him, walk with
+him, laugh with him, and say to him, "You are not like the
+others." What experiences there had been in the life of this girl
+of thirteen goodness alone knows. He never asked her, he was too
+sure of her.
+
+He learned French from her as one bird feeds from another's bill,
+or as one who looks at his image in a fountain, as be drinks from
+it.
+
+One day, as mother and son were at breakfast, she glanced quietly
+across at him. "I heard of an excellent preparatory school of
+mechanics at Rouen," she said, "so I wrote to inquire about it,
+and here is the answer. I approve of it in all respects, as you
+will do when you read it. I think that we shall go to Rouen; what
+do you say to it?"
+
+He grew first red, then white; then put down his bread, his table
+napkin; got up and left the room. Later in the day she asked him
+whether he would not read the letter; he left her without
+answering. At last, just as he was going to meet Lucie on the
+quay, she said, and this time with determination, that they were
+to leave in the course of an hour. She had already packed up; as
+they stood there the man came to fetch the luggage. At that moment
+he felt that he could thoroughly understand why his father had
+beaten her.
+
+As they sat in the carriage which took them to the station he
+suffered keenly. It could not nave been worse, he thought, if his
+mother had stabbed him with a knife. He did not sit beside her in
+the railway carriage.
+
+During the first days at Rouen he would not answer when she spoke
+to him, nor ask a single question. He had adopted her own tactics;
+he carried them through with a cruelty of which he was not aware.
+
+For a long time he had been disposed to criticise her; now that
+this criticism was extended to all that she said or did, the
+spirit of accusation tinctured her whole life; their joint past
+seemed altered and debased.
+
+His father's bent form, in the log chair on the hairless skin,
+malodorous and dirty, rose up before him, in vivid contrast with
+his mother in her well appointed, airy, perfumed rooms!
+
+When Rafael stood by his father's body he had felt the same thing-
+-that the old man had been badly treated. He himself had been
+encouraged to neglect his father, to shun him, to evade his
+orders. At that time he had laid the blame on the people on the
+estate; now he put it all down to his mother's account. His father
+had certainly adored her once, and this feeling had changed into
+wild self-consuming hatred. What had happened? He did not know;
+but he could not but admit that his mother would have tried the
+patience of Job.
+
+He pictured to himself how Lucie would come running with her
+flowers, search for him over the whole quay, farther and farther
+every time, standing still at last. He could not think of it
+without tears, and without a feeling of bitterness.
+
+But a child is a child. It was not a life-long grief. As the place
+was new and historically interesting, and as lessons had now begun
+and his mother was always with him, this feeling wore off, but the
+mutual restraint was still there. The critical spirit which had
+first been roused in England never afterwards left Rafael.
+
+The hours of study which they passed together produced good
+results. Beginning as her pupil, he had ended by becoming her
+teacher. She was anxious to keep up with him, and this was an
+advantage to him, on account of her almost too minute accuracy,
+but still more from her intelligent questions. Apart from study
+they passed many pleasant hours together, but they both knew that
+something was missing in their conversation which could never be
+there again.
+
+At longer or shorter intervals a shy silence interrupted this
+intercourse. Sometimes it was he, sometimes she, who, for some
+cause or other, often a most trivial one, elected not to reply,
+not to ask a question, not to see. When they were good friends he
+appreciated the best side of her character, the self-sacrificing
+life which she led for him. When they were not friends it was
+exactly the opposite. When they were friends, he, as a rule, did
+whatever she wished. He tried to atone for the past. He was in the
+land of courtesy and influenced by its teaching. When he was not
+friends with her he behaved as badly as possible. He early got
+among bad companions and into dissipated habits; he was the very
+child of Rebellion. At times he had qualms of conscience on
+account of it.
+
+She guessed this, and wished him to guess that she guessed it.
+
+"I perceive a strange atmosphere here, fie! Some one has mixed
+their atmosphere with yours, fie!" And she sprinkled him with
+scent.
+
+He turned as red as fire and, in his shame and misery, did not
+know which way to look. But if he attempted to speak she became as
+stiff as a poker, and, raising her small hand, "Taisez-vous des
+egards, sil vous plait."
+
+It must be said in her excuse that, notwithstanding the daring
+books which she had written, she had had no experience of real
+life; she knew no form of words for such an occasion. It came at
+last to this pass, that she, who had at one time wished to control
+his whole life and every thought in it, and who would not share
+him with any one, not even with a book, gradually became unwilling
+to have any relations with him outside his studies.
+
+The French language especially lends itself to formal intercourse
+and diplomacy. They grasped this fact from the first. It may,
+indeed, have contributed to form their mutual life. It was more
+equitable and caused fewer collisions. At the slightest
+disagreement it was at once "Monsieur mon fils" or simply
+"Monsieur," or "Madame ma mere," or "Madame."
+
+At one time his health seemed likely to suffer: his rapid growth
+and the studies, to which she kept him very closely, were too much
+for his strength.
+
+But just then something remarkable occurred. At the time when
+Rafael was nineteen he was one day in a French chemical factory,
+and, as it were in a flash, saw how half the power used in the
+machinery might be saved. The son of the owner who had brought him
+there was a fellow-student. To him he confided his discovery. They
+worked it out together with feverish excitement to the most minute
+details. It was very complex, for it was the working of the
+factory itself which was involved. The scheme was carefully gone
+into by the owner, his son, and their assistants together, and it
+was decided to try it. It was entirely successful; LESS than half
+the motive power now sufficed.
+
+Rafael was away at the time that it was inaugurated; he had gone
+down a mine. His mother was not with him; he never took her down
+mines with him. As soon as ever he returned home he hurried off
+with her to see the result of his work. They saw everything, and
+they both blushed at the respect shown to them by the workmen.
+They were quite touched when, the owner being called, they heard
+his expressions of boundless delight. Champagne flowed for them,
+accompanied by the warmest thanks. The mother received a beautiful
+bouquet. Excited by the wine and the congratulations, proud of his
+recognition as a genius, Rafael left the place with his mother on
+his arm. It seemed to him as though he were on one side, and all
+the rest of the world on the other. His mother walked happily
+beside him, with her bouquet in her hand. Rafael wore a new
+overcoat--one after his own heart, very long and faced with silk,
+and of which he was excessively proud. It was a clear winter's
+day; the sun shone on the silk, and on something more as well.
+
+"There is not a speck on the sky, mother," he said.
+
+"Nor one on your coat either," she retorted; for there had been a
+great many on his old one, and each had had its history.
+
+He was too big now to be turned to ridicule, and too happy as
+well. She heard him humming to himself: it was the Norwegian
+national air. They came back to the town again as from Elysium.
+All the passers-by looked at them: people quickly detect
+happiness. Besides Rafael was a head taller than most of them and
+fairer in complexion. He walked quickly along beside his elegant
+mother, and looked across the Boulevard as though from a sunny
+height.
+
+"There are days on which one feels oneself a different person," he
+said.
+
+"There are days on which one receives so much," she answered,
+pressing his arm.
+
+They went home, threw aside their wraps, and looked at one
+another. Sketches of the machinery which they had just seen lay
+about, as well as some rough drawings. These she collected and
+made into a roll.
+
+"Rafael," she said, and drew herself up, half laughing, half
+trembling, "kneel; I wish to knight you."
+
+It did not seem unnatural to him; he did so.
+
+"Noblesse oblige," she said, and let the roll of paper approach
+his head; but therewith she dropped it and burst into tears.
+
+He spent a merry evening with his friends, and was
+enthusiastically applauded. But as he lay in bed that night he
+felt utterly despondent. The whole thing might, after all, have
+been a mere chance. He had seen so much, had acquired so much
+information; it was no discovery that he had made. What was it,
+then? He was certainly not a genius; that must be an exaggeration.
+Could one imagine a genius without a victor's confidence, or had
+his peculiar life destroyed that confidence? This anxiety which
+constantly intruded itself; this bad conscience; this dreadful,
+vile conscience; this ineradicable dread; was it a foreboding? Did
+it point to the future?
+
+It was about half a year after this that his desultory studies
+became concentrated on electricity, and after a time this took
+them to Munich. During the course of these studies he began to
+write, quite spontaneously. The students had formed a society, and
+Rafael was expected to contribute a paper. But his contribution
+was so original that they begged him to show it to the professor,
+and this encouraged him greatly. It was the professor, too, who
+had his first article printed. A Norwegian technical periodical
+accepted a subsequent one, and this was the external influence
+which turned his thoughts once more towards Norway. Norway rose
+before him as the promised land of electricity. The motive power
+of its countless waterfalls was sufficient for the whole world! He
+saw his country during the winter darkness gleaming with electric
+lustre. He saw her, too, the manufactory of the world, the
+possessor of navies. Now he had something to go home for!
+
+His mother did not share his love for their country, and had no
+desire to live in Norway. But the money which she had saved up for
+his education bad been spent long ago. Hellebergene had had its
+share. The estate did not yield an equivalent, for it was
+essentially a timbered estate, and the trees on it were still
+immature.
+
+So it was to be home! A few years alone at Hellebergene was just
+what he wished for. But--something always occurred to prevent
+their departure at the time fixed for it. First he was detained by
+an invention which he wished to patent. Up to the present time he
+had only sketched out ideas which others had adopted; now it was
+to be different. The invention was duly patented and handed over
+to an agent to sell; but still they did not start. What was the
+hindrance? Another invention with a fresh patent more likely to
+sell than the first, which unfortunately did not go off. This
+patent was also taken out, which again cost money, and was handed
+over to the agent to be sold. Could he not start now? Well, yes,
+he thought he could. But Fru Kaas soon realised that he was not
+serious, so she sought the help of a young relative, Hans Ravn, an
+engineer, like most of the Ravns. Rafael liked Hans, for he was
+himself a Ravn in temperament, a thing that he had not realised
+before; it was quite a revelation to him. He had believed that the
+Ravns were like his mother, but now found that she greatly
+differed from them. To Hans Ravn Fru Kaas said plainly that now
+they must start. The last day of May was the date fixed on, and
+this Hans was to tell every one, for it would make Rafael bestir
+himself, his mother thought, if this were known everywhere. Hans
+Ravn spread this news far and near, partly because it was his
+province to do so, partly because he hoped it would be the
+occasion of a farewell entertainment such as had never been seen.
+A banquet actually did take place amid general enthusiasm, which
+ended in the whole company forming a procession to escort their
+guest to his house. Here they encountered a crowd of officers who
+were proceeding home in the same manner. They nearly came to
+blows, but fraternised instead, and the engineers cheered the
+officers and the officers the engineers.
+
+The next day the history of the two entertainments and the
+collision between the guests went the round of the papers.
+
+This produced results which Fru Kaas had not foreseen. The first
+was a very pleasant one. The professor who had had Rafael's first
+article published drove up to the door, accompanied by his family.
+He mounted the stairs, and asked her if she would not, in their
+company, once more visit the prettiest parts of Munich and its
+vicinity. She felt flattered, and accepted the invitation. As they
+drove along they talked of nothing but Rafael: partly about his
+person, for he was the darling of every lady, partly about the
+future which lay before him. The professor said that he had never
+had a more gifted pupil. Fru Kaas had brought an excellent
+binocular glass with her, which she raised to her eyes from time
+to time to conceal her emotion, and their hearty praise seemed to
+flood the landscape and buildings with sunshine.
+
+The little party lunched together, and drove home in the
+afternoon.
+
+When Fru Kaas re-entered her room, she was greeted by the scent of
+flowers. Many of their friends who had not till now known when
+they were to leave had wished to pay them some compliment. Indeed,
+the maid said that the bell had been ringing the whole morning. A
+little later Rafael and Hans Ravn came in with one or two friends.
+They proposed to dine together. The sale of the last patent seemed
+to be assured, and they wished to celebrate the event. Fru Kaas
+was in excellent spirits, so off they went.
+
+They dined in the open air with a number of other people round
+them. There was music and merriment, and the subdued hum of
+distant voices rose and fell in the twilight. When the lamps were
+lighted, they had on one side the glare of a large town, on the
+other the semi-darkness was only relieved by points of light; and
+this was made the subject of poetical allusions in speeches to the
+friends who were so soon to leave them.
+
+Just then two ladies slowly passed near Rafael's chair. Fru Kaas,
+who was sitting opposite, noticed them, but he did not. When they
+had gone a short distance they stood still and waited, but did not
+attract his attention. Then they came slowly back again, passing
+close behind his chair, but still in vain. This annoyed Fru Kaas.
+Her individuality was so strong that her silence cast a shadow
+over the whole party; they broke up.
+
+The next morning Rafael was out again on business connected with
+the patent. The bell rang, and the maid came in with a bill; it
+had been brought the previous day as well, she said. It was from
+one of the chief restaurateurs of the town, and was by no means a
+small one. Fru Kaas had no idea that Rafael owed money--least of
+all to a restaurateur. She told the maid to say that her son was
+of age, and that she was not his cashier. There was another ring--
+the maid reappeared with a second bill, which had also been
+brought the day before. It was from a well-known wine merchant;
+this, too, was not a small one. Another ring; this time it was a
+bill for flowers and by no means a trifle. This, too, had been
+brought the day before. Fru Kaas read it twice, three times, four
+times: she could not realise that Rafael owed money for flowers--
+what did he want them for? Another ring; now it was a bill from a
+jeweller. Fru Kaas became so nervous at the ringing and the bills
+that she took to flight. Here, then, was the explanation of their
+postponed departure: he was held captive; this was the reason for
+all his anxiety about selling the patent. He had to buy his
+freedom. She was hardly in the street when an unpretending little
+old woman stepped up to her, and asked timidly if this might be
+Frau von Kas? Another bill, thought Fru Kaas, eyeing her closely.
+She reminded one of a worn-out rose-bush with a few faded blossoms
+on it: she seemed poor and inexperienced in all save humility.
+
+"What do you want with me?" inquired Fru Kaas sympathetically,
+resolved to pay the poor thing at once, whatever it might be.
+
+The little woman begged "Tausend Mal um Verzeihung," but she was
+"Einer Beamten-Wittwe" and had read in the paper that the young
+Von Kas was leaving, and both she and her daughter were in such
+despair that she had resolved to come to Frau von Kas, who was the
+only one--and here she began to cry.
+
+"What does your daughter want from me?" asked Fru Kaas rather less
+gently.
+
+"Ach! tausend Mal um Verzeihung gnadige Frau," her daughter was
+married to Hofrath von Rathen--"ihrer grossen Schonheit wegen"--
+ah, she was so unhappy, for Hofrath von Rathen drank and was cruel
+to her. Herr von Kas had met her at the artists' fete--"Und so
+wissen Sie zwei so junge, reizende Leute." She looked up at Fru
+Kaas through her tears--looked up as though from a rain-splashed
+cellar window; but Fru Kaas had reverted to her abrupt manner, and
+as if from an upper storey the poor little woman heard, "What does
+your daughter want with my son?"
+
+"Tausend Mal um Verzeihung," but it had seemed to them that her
+daughter might go with them to Norway, Norway was such a free
+country. "Und die zwei Jungen haben sich so gern."
+
+"Has he promised her this?" said Fru Kaas, with haughty coldness.
+
+"Nein, nein, nein," was the frightened reply. They two, mother and
+daughter, had thought of it that day. They had read in the paper
+that the young Von Kas was going away. "Herr Gott in Himmel!" if
+her daughter could thus be rid at once of all her troubles! Frau
+von Kas had not an idea of what a faithful soul, what a tender
+wife her daughter was.
+
+Fru Kaas crossed hastily over to the opposite pavement. She did
+not go quite so fast as a person in chase of his hat, but it
+seemed to the poor little creature, left in the lurch, with folded
+hands and frightened eyes, that she had vanished faster than her
+hopes. On the other side of the waystood a pretty young flower-
+girl who was waiting for the elegant lady hurrying in her
+direction. "Bitte, gnadige Frau." Here is another, thought the
+hunted creature. She looked round for help, she flew up the
+street, away, away--when another lady popped up right in front of
+her, evidently trying to catch her eye. Fru Kaas dashed into the
+middle of the street and took refuge in a carriage.
+
+"Where to?" asked the driver.
+
+This she had not stopped to consider, but nevertheless answered
+boldly, "The Bavaria!"
+
+In point of fact she had had an idea of seeing the view of the
+city and its environs from "Bavaria's" lofty head before leaving.
+There were a great many people there, but Fru Kaas's turn to go up
+soon came; but just as she had reached the head of the giantess
+and was going to look out, she heard a lady whisper close behind
+her, "That is his mother." It was probable that there were several
+mothers up there in "Bavaria's" head beside Fru Kaas, nevertheless
+she gathered her skirts together and hurried down again.
+
+Rafael came home to dine with his mother; he was in the highest
+spirits--he had sold his patent. But he found her sitting in the
+farthest corner of the sofa, with her big binocular glass in her
+hand. When he spoke to her she did not answer, but turned the
+glass with the small end towards him; she wished him to look as
+far off as possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+
+It was a bright evening in the beginning of June that they
+disembarked from the steamer, and at once left the town in the
+boat which was to take them to Hellebergene. They did not know any
+of the boatmen, although they were from the estate; the boat also
+was new.
+
+But the islands among which they were soon rowing were the old
+ones, which had long awaited them and seemed to have swum out to
+meet them, and now to move one behind the other so that the boat
+might pass between them. Neither mother nor son spoke to the men,
+nor did they talk to each ether. In thus keeping silence they
+entered into each other's feelings, for they were both awestruck.
+It came upon them all at once. The bright evening light over sea
+and islands, the aromatic fragrance from the land,--the quick
+splash of a little coasting steamer as she passed them--nothing
+could cheer them.
+
+Their life lay there before them, bringing responsibilities both
+old and new. How would all that they were coming to look to them,
+and how far were they themselves now fitted for it?
+
+Now they had passed the narrow entrance of the bay, and rounded
+the last point beneath the crags of Hellebergene. The green
+expanse opened out before them, the buildings in its midst. The
+hillsides had once been crowned and darkly clad with luxuriant
+woods. Now they stood there denuded, shrunk, formless, spread over
+with a light green growth leaving some parts bare. The lowlands,
+as well as the hills which framed them, were shrunk and
+diminished, not in extent but in appearance. They could nut
+persuade themselves to look at it. They recalled it all as it had
+been and felt themselves despoiled.
+
+The buildings had been newly painted, but they looked small by
+contrast with those which they had in their minds. No one awaited
+them at the landing, but a few people stood about near the
+gallery, looking embarrassed--or were they suspicious? The
+travellers went into Fru Kaas's old rooms, both up stairs and
+down. These were just as they had left them, but how faded and
+wretched they looked! The table, which was laid for supper, was
+loaded with coarse food like that at a farmer's wedding.
+
+The old lime-trees were gone. Fru Kaas wept.
+
+Suddenly she was reminded of something. "Let us go across to the
+other wing," she said this as if there they would find what was
+wanting. In the gallery she took Rafael's arm; he grew curious.
+His father's old rooms had been entirely renovated for him. In
+everything, both great and small, he recognised his mother's
+designs and taste. A vast amount of work, unknown to him, an
+endless interchange of letters and a great expenditure of money.
+How new and bright everything looked! The rooms differed as much
+from what they had been, as she had endeavoured to make Rafael's
+life from the one that had been led in them.
+
+They two had a comfortable meal together after all, followed by a
+quiet walk along the shore. The wide waters of the bay gleamed
+softly, and the gentle ripple took up its old story again while
+the summer night sank gently down upon them.
+
+Early the next morning Rafael was out rowing in the bay, the play-
+ground of his childhood. Notwithstanding the shorn and sunken
+aspect of the hills, his delight at being there again was
+indescribable. Indescribable because of the loneliness and
+stillness: no one came to disturb him. After having lived for many
+years in large towns, to find oneself alone in a Norwegian bay is
+like leaving a noisy market-place at midday and passing into a
+high vaulted church where no sound penetrates from without, and
+where only one's own footstep breaks the silence. Holiness,
+purification, abstraction, devotion, but in such light and freedom
+as no church possesses. The lapse of time, the past were
+forgotten; it was as though he had never been away, as though no
+other place had ever known him.
+
+Indescribable, for the intensity of his feelings surpassed
+anything that he had hitherto known. New sensations, impressions
+of beauty absolutely forgotten since childhood, or remembered but
+imperfectly, crowded upon him, speaking to him like welcoming
+spirits.
+
+The altered contour of the hills, the dear familiar smell, the sky
+which seemed lower and yet farther off, the effects of light in
+colder tones, but paler and more delicate. Nowhere a broad plain,
+an endless expanse. No! all was diversified, full of contrast,
+broken; not lofty, still unique, fresh, he had almost said
+tumultuous.
+
+Each moment he felt more in accord with his memories, his nature
+was in harmony with it all.
+
+He paused between each stroke of the oars, soothed by the gentle
+motion; the boat glided on, he had not concerned himself whither,
+when he heard from behind the sound of oars which was not the echo
+of his own. The strokes succeeded each other at regular intervals.
+He turned.
+
+At that moment Fru Kaas came out on to the terrace with her big
+binocular. She had had her coffee, and was ready to enjoy the view
+over the bay, the islands, and the open sea. Rafael, she was told,
+had already gone out in the boat. Yes! there he was, far out. She
+put up her glass at the moment that a white painted boat shot out
+towards his brown one. The white one was rowed by a girl in a
+light-coloured dress. "Grand Dieu! are there girls here too?"
+
+Now Rafael ceases rowing, the girl does the same, they rest on
+their oars and the boats glide past each other. Fru Kaas could
+distinguish the girl's shapely neck under her dark hair, but her
+wide-brimmed straw hat hid her face.
+
+Rafael lets his oars trail along the water and resting on them
+looks at her, and now her oars also touch the water as she turns
+towards him. Do they know each other? Quickly the boats draw
+together; Rafael puts out his hand and draws them closer, and now
+he gives HER his hand. Fru Kaas can see Rafael's profile so
+plainly that she can detect the movement of his lips. He is
+laughing! The stranger's face is hidden by her hat, but she can
+see a full figure and a vigorous arm below the half-sleeve. They
+do not loose their hands; now he is laughing till his broad
+shoulders shake. What is it? What is it? Can any one have followed
+him from Munich? Fru Kaas could remain where she was no longer.
+She went indoors and put down the glass; she was overcome by
+anxiety, filled with helpless anger. It was some time before she
+could prevail on herself to go out and resume her walk. The girl
+had turned her boat. Now they are rowing in side by side, she as
+strongly as he. Whenever Fru Kaas looked at her son he was
+laughing and the girl's face was turned towards his. Now they head
+for the landing-place at the parsonage. Was it Helene? The only
+girl for miles round, and Rafael had hooked himself on to her the
+very first day that he was at home. These girls who can never see
+him without taking a fancy to him! Now the boats are beached, not
+on the shingle, where the stones would be slippery. No! on the
+sand, where they have run them up as high as possible. Now she
+jumps lightly and quickly out of her boat, and he a little more
+heavily out of his; they grasp each other's hands again. Yes!
+there they were.
+
+Fru Kaas turned away; she knew that for the moment she was nothing
+more than an old chattel pushed away into a corner.
+
+It was Helene. She knew that they had arrived and thought that she
+would row past the house; and thus it was that she had encountered
+Rafael, who had simply gone out to amuse himself.
+
+As they had lain on their oars and the boats glided silently past
+each other, he thought to himself, "That girl never grew up here,
+she is cast in too fine a mould for that; she is not in harmony
+with the place." He saw a face whose regular lines, and large grey
+eyes, harmonised well with each other, a quiet wise face, across
+which all at once there flew a roguish look. He knew it again. It
+had done him good before to-day. Our first thought in all
+recognitions, in all remembrances--that is to say, if there is
+occasion for it--is, has that which we recognise or recall done us
+good or evil?
+
+This large mouth, those honest eyes, which have a roguish look
+just now, had always, done him good.
+
+"Helene!" he cried, arresting the progress of his boat.
+
+"Rafael!" she answered, blushing crimson and checking her boat
+too.
+
+What a soft contralto voice!
+
+When he came in to breakfast, beaming, ready to tell everything,
+he was confronted by two large eyes, which said as plainly as
+possible, "Am I put on one side already?" He became absolutely
+angry. During breakfast she said, in a tone of indifference, that
+she was going to drive to the Dean's, to thank him for the
+supervision which he had given to the estate during all these
+years. He did not answer, from which she inferred that he did not
+wish to go with her. It was some time before she started. The
+harness was new, the stable-boy raw and untrained. She saw nothing
+more of Rafael.
+
+She was received at the parsonage with the greatest respect, and
+yet very heartily. The Dean was a fine old man and thoroughly
+practical. His wife was of profounder nature. Both protested that
+the care of the estate had been no trouble to them, it had only
+been a pleasant employment; Helene had now undertaken it.
+
+"Helene?"
+
+Yes; it had so chanced that the first bailiff at Hellebergene had
+once been agronomist and forester on a large concern which was in
+liquidation, Helene had taken such a fancy to him, that when she
+was not at school, she went with him everywhere; and, indeed, he
+was a wonderful old man. During these rambles she had learned all
+that he could teach her. He had an especial gift for forestry. It
+was a development for her, for it gave a fresh interest to her
+life. Little by little she had taken over the whole care of the
+estate. It absorbed her.
+
+Fru Kaas asked if she might see Helene, to thank her.
+
+"But Helene has just gone out with Rafael, has she not?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure," answered Fru Kaas. She would not show surprise;
+but she asked at once for her carriage.
+
+Meanwhile the two young people had determined to climb the ridge.
+At first they followed the course of the river, Helene leading the
+way. It was evident that she had grown up in the woods. How strong
+and supple she was, and how well she acquitted herself when she
+had to cross a brook, climb a wooded slope, force a way through a
+barrier of bristly young fir-trees which opposed her passage, or
+surmount a heap of clay at a quarry, of which there were a great
+many about there. Each difficulty was in turn overcome. The ascent
+from the river was the most direct and the pleasantest, which was
+the reason that they had come this way. Rafael would not be
+outdone by her, and kept close at her heels. But, great heavens!
+what it cost him. Partly because he was out of practice, partly--
+
+"It is a little difficult to get over here," she said. A tree had
+fallen during the last rainy weather, and hung half suspended by
+its roots, obstructing the path. "You must not hold by it, it
+might give way and drag us with it."
+
+At last there is something which she considers difficult, he
+thought.
+
+She deliberated for a moment before the farthest-spreading
+branches which had to be crossed; then, lifting her skirts to her
+knees, over them she went, and over the next ones as well, and
+then across the trunk to the farthest side, where there were no
+branches in the way; then obliquely up the hillside. She stood
+still at the top of the height and watched him crawl up after her.
+
+It cost him a struggle; he was out of breath and the perspiration
+poured off him. When he got up to her, everything swam before him;
+and although it was only for a fraction of a second, it left him
+fairly captivated by her strength,
+
+She stood and looked at him with bright, roguish eyes. She was
+flushed and hot, and her bosom rose and fell quickly; but there
+was no doubt that she could at once have taken an equally long and
+steep climb. He was not able to speak a word.
+
+"Now turn round and look at the sea," she said.
+
+The words affected him as though great Pan had uttered them from
+the mountains far behind. He turned his eyes towards them. It
+seemed as though Nature herself had spoken to him. The words
+caressed him as with a hand now cold, now warm, and he became a
+different being. For he had lost himself--lost himself in her as
+she walked along the river-bank and climbed the hillside. She
+seemed to draw fresh power from the woods, to grow taller, more
+agile, more vigorous. The fervour of her eyes, the richness of her
+voice, the grace of her movements, the glimpses of her soul, had
+allured him down there in the valley, beside the rushing river,
+and the feeling of loss of individuality had increased with the
+exertion and the excitement. No ball-room or play-ground, no
+gymnasium or riding-school can display the physical powers, and
+the spirit which underlies them, the unity of mind and body, as
+does the scaling of steep hills and rocky slopes. At last,
+intoxicated by these feelings, he thought to himself--I am
+climbing after her, climbing to the highest pinnacle of happiness.
+Up there! Up there! The composure of her manner towards him, her
+freedom from embarrassment, maddened him. Up there! Up there! And
+ever as they mounted she became more spirited, he more distressed.
+Up there! Up there! His eyes grew dim, for a few seconds he could
+not move, could not speak. Then she had said, "Now you must look
+at the sea."
+
+He seemed to see with different eyes, to be endowed with new
+sensations, and these new sensations gave answer to what the
+distant mountains had said. They answered the sea out there before
+him, the island-studded sea, the open sea beyond, the wide
+swelling ocean, the desires and destinies of life all the world
+over. The sea lay steel-bright beneath the suffused sunlight, and
+seemed to gaze on the rugged land as on a beloved child instinct
+with vital power. Cling thou to the mighty one, or thy strength
+will be thine undoing!
+
+And many of the inventions which he had dreamed of loomed vaguely
+before him. They lay outside there. It depended on him whether he
+should one day bring them safely into port.
+
+"What are you thinking about?" said she, the sound of her voice
+put these thoughts to flight and recalled him to the present. He
+felt how full and rich her contralto voice was, A moment ago he
+could have told her this, and more besides, as an introduction to
+still more. Now he sat down without answering, and she did the
+same.
+
+"I come up here very often," she said, "to look at the sea. From
+here it seems the source of life and death; down there it is a
+mere highway." He smiled. She continued: "The sea has this power,
+that whatever pre-occupation one may bring up here, it vanishes in
+a moment; but down below it remains with one."
+
+He looked at her.
+
+"Yes, it is true," said she, and coloured.
+
+"I do not in the least doubt it," he replied.
+
+But she did not continue the subject. "You are looking at the
+saplings, I see."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You must know that last year there was a long drought; almost all
+the young trees up here withered away, and in other places on the
+hillsides also, as you see." She pointed as she spoke. "It looks
+so ugly as one comes into the bay. I thought about that yesterday.
+I thought also that you should not be here long before you saw
+that you had done us an injustice, for could anything be prettier
+than that little fir-tree down there in the hollow? just look at
+its colour; that is a healthy fellow! and these sturdy saplings,
+and that little gem there!" The tones of Helene's voice betrayed
+the interest which she felt. "But how that one over there has
+grown." She scrambled across to it, and he after her. "Do you see?
+two branches already; and what branches!" They knelt down beside
+it. "This boy has had parents of whom he can boast, for they have
+all had just as much and just as little shelter. Oh! the
+disgusting caterpillars." She was down before the little tree at
+the side which was being spun over. She cleared it, and got up to
+fetch some wet mould, which she laid carefully round the sprouts.
+"Poor thing I it wants water, although it rained tremendously a
+little time ago."
+
+"Are you often up here?" he asked.
+
+"It would all come to nothing if I were not!" She looked at him
+searchingly. "You do not, perhaps, believe that this little tree
+knows me; every one of them, indeed. If I am long away from them
+they do not thrive, but when I am often with them they flourish."
+She was on her knees, supporting herself with one hand, while with
+the other she pulled up some grass. "The thieves," said she,
+"which want to rob my saplings."
+
+If it had been a little person who had said this; a little person
+with lively eyes and a merry mouth--but Helene was tall and
+stately; her eyes were not lively, but met one with a steady gaze.
+Her mouth was large, and gave deliberate utterance to her
+thoughts.
+
+Whoever has read Helene's words quickly, hurriedly, must read them
+over again. She spoke quietly and thoughtfully, each syllable
+distinct and musical. She was not the same girl who had led the
+way by river and hill. Then she seemed to glory in her strength;
+now her energy had changed to delicate feeling.
+
+One of the most remarkable women in Scandinavia, who also had
+these two sides to her character, and made the fullest use of
+both, Johanne Luise Hejberg, once saw Helene when she had but just
+attained to womanhood. She could not take her eyes off her; she
+never tired of watching her and listening to her. Did the aged
+woman, then at the close of her life, recognise anything of her
+own youth in the girl? Outwardly too they resembled each other.
+Helene was dark, as Fru Hejberg had been; was about the same
+height, with the same figure, but stronger; had a large mouth,
+large grey eyes like hers, into which the same roguish look would
+start. But the greatest likeness was to be found in their natures:
+in Fru Hejberg's expression when she was quiet and serious; in a
+certain motherliness which was the salient feature in her nature.
+
+"What a healthy girl!" said she; bade some one bring Helene to
+her, and drawing her towards her, kissed her on the forehead.
+
+Helene and her companion had crossed to the other side of the
+hill, for he positively must see the "Buckthorn Swamp"; but when
+they got down there he did not know it again: it was covered by
+luxuriant woods.
+
+"Yes! It is old Helgesen who deserves the credit of that," she
+said. "He noticed that an artificial embankment had converted this
+great flat into a swamp, so he cut through it. I was only a child
+then, but I had my share in it. They gave me a bit of ground down
+by the river to plant Kohl Kabi in. I looked after it the whole
+summer. Later on I had a larger piece. With the profits we cut
+ditches up to here. In the fourth year we bought plants. In fact,
+he so arranged it, that I paid for it all with my work, the old
+rogue!"
+
+When Rafael got home his mother was at table: she had not waited
+for him, a sure sign that she felt aggrieved. No attempts on his
+part to set things right succeeded. She would not answer, and soon
+left the room. It now struck him how pleasant it would have been
+for his mother if he had taken her with him to explore and make
+acquaintance with this new Hellebergene. The evening before, in
+his father's rooms, it had seemed as though nothing could ever
+separate them--and the first thing in the morning he was off with
+some one else. This evening he knew that nothing could be done,
+but next morning he begged her earnestly to come with them, and
+they would show her what he had seen the day before; but she only
+shook her head and took up a book. Day after day he made a similar
+request, but always with the same result. She thought that these
+invitations were merely formal, and so, from one point of view,
+they were. He was most ready to appease her, most ready to show
+her everything, for he felt himself to blame, though he certainly
+thought that she might have understood; but her presence would
+have marred their tete-a-tete; he would have been embarrassed
+enough if she had acquiesced!
+
+The Dean, with his wife and daughter, came the following Sunday to
+return Fru Kaas's visit. She was politeness itself, and specially
+thanked Helene for her care of Hellebergene. Helene coloured
+without knowing why, but when Rafael also coloured, she blushed
+still deeper. This was the event of the visit; nothing else of
+importance occurred.
+
+In their daily walks through the fields and woods, the two young
+people soon exhausted the topic of Hellebergene. He took up
+another theme. His inventions became the topic of conversation. He
+had acquired, from his studies with his mother, an unusual
+facility in explaining his meaning, and in Helene he found a
+listener such as he had rarely before met with. She was
+sufficiently acquainted with the laws of nature to understand a
+simple description. But all the same it was not his inventions but
+himself that he discoursed on. He quite realised this, and became
+all the more eager. Her eyes made his reasoning clearer. He had
+never before had such complete faith in himself as when near her,
+and now no misgivings succeeded.
+
+Helene, however, had not hitherto known the direction and results
+of his studies. He was an engineer, that was all that she had
+heard on the subject. When he had told her more about it he rose
+considerably in her estimation. It was SHE now who began to feel
+constrained. At first she did not understand why she felt obliged
+to put more restraint upon herself. After a time she began to
+excuse herself from joining him, and their walks became more rare.
+"She had so much to do now."
+
+He did not comprehend the reason of this; he fancied that his
+mother might be to blame (which, by the way, was quite a mistake),
+and he grew angry. He was already greatly affronted that his
+mother had chosen to confound his former gallantries with his
+present attachment. He quite forgot that at first he had merely
+sought to amuse himself here as elsewhere. He gave himself up
+entirely to his passion, which would brook no hindrance, no
+opposition; it became majestic. In Helene he had found his future
+life.
+
+But her parents had grown less cordial of late owing to Fru Kaas's
+coldness, and the time came when all attempts to obtain meetings
+with Helene failed. He had never been so infatuated. He seemed to
+see her continually before him--her luxuriant beauty, her light
+step, her grey eyes gazing steadfastly into his.
+
+Why could they not be married to-morrow or the next day? What
+could be more natural? What could more certainly help him forward?
+
+The constraint between his mother and himself had reached a
+greater pitch than ever before. He thought seriously of leaving
+her and the country. He still had some money left, the proceeds of
+the patent, and he could easily make more. How irksome it became
+to him to go into the fields and woods without Helene! He could
+not study; he had no one to talk to; what should he do?
+
+Devote himself to boating!--row out far beyond the bay, right up
+to the town! One day, as he rowed along the coast, beyond the bay,
+he noticed that the clay and flag-stone formation in the hills and
+ridges was speckled with grey. Helene had told him how
+extraordinary it looked out there now that the trees were gone,
+but as they would have had to come out in the boat to see it he
+had let the remark pass. Now he decided to land there. The shore
+rose steeply from the water, but he scrambled up. He had expected
+to find limestone, but he could hardly believe his own eyes: it
+was cement stone! Absolutely, undoubtedly, cement stone! How far
+did it extend? As far as he could see; it might even extend to the
+boundary of the estate. In any case, here was sufficient for
+extensive works for many, many years, if only there were enough
+silica with the clay and lime. He had soon knocked off a few
+pieces, which he put into the boat, and set out for home to
+analyse them.
+
+Seldom had any one rowed faster than he did; now he shot past the
+islands into the bay, up to the landing-place before the house. If
+the cement stone contained the right proportions, here was what
+would make Helene and himself independent of every one; AND THAT
+AT ONCE!
+
+A little later, with dirty hands and clothes, his face bathed in
+perspiration, he rushed up to his mother with the result of his
+investigations.
+
+"Here is something for you to see."
+
+She was reading; she looked up and turned as white as a sheet.
+
+"Is that the cement stone?" she asked, as she put down her book.
+
+"Did you know about it?" he exclaimed, in the greatest
+astonishment.
+
+"Good gracious, yes," she answered. She walked across to the
+window, came back again, pressing her hands together. "So you have
+found it too?"
+
+"Who did before me?"
+
+"Your father, Rafael, your father, the first time that I was here,
+a little time before we were to leave." She paused. "He came
+rushing in as you did just now--not so quickly, not so quickly, he
+was weak in the legs, but otherwise just like you." She let her
+eyes rest, with a peculiar look, on Rafael's dirty hands. The
+hands themselves were not well shaped, they were almost exactly
+his father's.
+
+Rafael noticed nothing.
+
+"Had HE found the bed of cement stone, then?"
+
+"Yes. He locked the door behind him. I got up from my chair and
+asked him how he dared? He could hardly speak." She paused for a
+moment, recalling it all again. "Yes, and it was THAT stuff."
+
+"What did he say, mother?"
+
+She had turned to leave the room.
+
+"Your father believed that I had brought luck to the house."
+
+"And why was it not so, then?"
+
+She faced him quickly. He coloured.
+
+"Pardon, mother, you misunderstood me. I meant, why did it come to
+nothing about the cement?"
+
+"You did not know your father: there were too many hooks about him
+for him to be able to carry out anything."
+
+"Hooks?"
+
+"Yes! eccentricity, egotism, passion, which caught fast in
+everything."
+
+"What did he propose to do?"
+
+"No one was to be allowed to have anything to do with it, no one
+was to know of it, he was to be everything! For this reason the
+timber was to be cut down and sold; and when we were married--I
+say when we were married, the whole of my fortune was to be used
+as well."
+
+He saw the horror with which she still regarded it; she was
+passing through the whole struggle again; and he understood that
+he must not question her further. She made a gesture with her
+hand; and he asked hurriedly, "Why did you not tell me before,
+mother?"
+
+"Because it would have brought you no good," she answered
+decidedly.
+
+He felt, nay, he saw that she believed that it would bring him no
+good now. She again raised her hand, and he left her.
+
+When he was once more in the boat, taking his great news to the
+parsonage, he thought to himself, Here is the reason of my
+father's and mother's deadly enmity.
+
+The cement stone! She did not trust him, she would not give him
+both herself and her fortune, so there was no cement, nor were any
+trees felled.
+
+"Well, he scored after all. Yes, and mother too; but God help ME!"
+
+Then he reckoned up what the timber and the fortune together would
+have been worth, and what further sum could have been raised on
+the property, the value of the cement-bed being taken into
+consideration. He understood his father better than his mother.
+What a fortune, what power, what magnificence, what a life!
+
+At the parsonage he carried every one with him.
+
+The Dean, because he saw at once what this was worth. "You are a
+rich man now," he said. The Dean's wife, because she felt
+attracted by his ability and enthusiasm. Helene? Helene was silent
+and frightened. He turned towards her and asked if she would come
+with him in the boat to see it. She really must see how extensive
+the bed was.
+
+"Yes, dear, go with him," said her father.
+
+Rafael wished to sit behind her in the boat and hastened towards
+the bow; but, without a word, she passed him, sat down, and took
+her oars; so, after all, he had to sit in front of her.
+
+They thus began at cross purposes. His back was towards her, he
+saw how the water foamed under her oars, there was a secret
+struggle, a tacit fear, which was heard in the few words which
+they exchanged, and which merely increased their constraint.
+
+When they drew near to their destination they were flushed and
+hot. Now he was obliged to turn round to look for the place of
+landing. To begin with, they went slowly along the whole cement-
+bed as far as it was visible. He was now turned so as to face her,
+and he explained it all to her. She kept her eyes fixed on the
+cliff, and only glanced at him, or did not look at him all. They
+turned the boat again, in order to land at the place where he
+intended the factory to stand. A portion of the rock would have to
+be blasted to make room, the harbour too must be made safer so
+that vessels might lie close in, and all this would cost money.
+
+He landed first in order to help her, but she jumped on shore
+without his assistance; then they climbed upwards, he leading the
+way, explaining everything as he went; she following with eyes and
+ears intent.
+
+All for which, from her childhood, she had worked so hard at
+Hellebergene, and all which she had dreamed of for the estate, had
+become so little now. It would be many years before the trees
+yielded any return. But here was promise of immediate prosperity
+and future wealth if, as she never doubted, he proved to be
+correct. She felt that this humbled her, made her of no account,
+but ah! how great it made him seem!
+
+The rowing, the climbing, the excitement, gave animation to
+Rafael's explanations; face and figure showed his state of
+tension. She felt almost giddy: should she return to the boat and
+row away alone? But she was too proud thus to betray herself.
+
+It seemed to her that there was the look of a conqueror in his
+eyes; but she did not intend to be conquered. Neither did she wish
+to appear as the one who had remained at home and speculated on
+his return. That would be simply to turn all that was most
+cherished, most unselfish in her life, against herself. Something
+in him frightened her, something which, perhaps, he himself could
+not master--his inward agitation. It was not boisterous or
+terrifying; it was glowing, earnest zeal, which seemed to deprive
+him of power and her of will, and this she would not endure.
+
+Hardly had they gained the summit from which they could look out
+over the islands to the open sea, and across to Hellebergene, to
+the parsonage, and the river flowing into the inner bay, than he
+turned away from it all towards her, as she stood with heaving
+breast, glowing cheeks, and eyes which dare not turn away from the
+sea.
+
+"Helene," he whispered, approaching her; he wished to take her in
+his arms.
+
+She trembled, although she did not turn round; the next moment she
+sprang away from him, and did not pause till she had got down to
+the boat, which she was about to push off, but bethought herself
+that it would be too cowardly, so she remained standing and
+watched him come after her.
+
+"Helene," he called from above, "why do you run away from me?"
+
+"Rafael, you must not," she answered when he rejoined her. The
+strongest accent of both prayer and command of which a powerful
+nature is capable sounded in her words. She in the boat, he on the
+shore; they eyed one another like two antagonists, watchful and
+breathing hard, till he loosed the boat, stepped in and pushed
+off.
+
+She took her seat; but before doing the same he said:
+
+"You know quite well what I wanted to say to you." He spoke with
+difficulty.
+
+She did not answer and got out her oars; her tears were ready to
+flow. They rowed home again more slowly than they had come.
+
+A lark hovered over their heads. The note of a thrush was heard
+away inland. A guillemot skimmed over the water in the same
+direction as their own, and a tern on curved wing screamed in
+their wake. There was a sense of expectation over all. The scent
+of the young fir-trees and the heather was wafted out to them;
+farther in lay the flowery meadows of Hellebergene. At a great
+distance an eagle could be seen, high in air, winging his way from
+the mountains, followed by a flock of screaming crows, who
+imagined that they were chasing him. Rafael drew Helene's
+attention to them.
+
+"Yes, look at them," she said; and these few words, spoken
+naturally, helped to put both more at their ease. He looked round
+at her and smiled, and she smiled back at him. He felt in the
+seventh heaven of delight, but it must not be spoken. But the oars
+seemed to repeat in measured cadence, "It--is--she. It--is--she.
+It--is--she." He said to himself, Is not her resistance a thousand
+times sweeter than--
+
+"It is strange that the sea birds no longer breed on the islands
+in here," he said.
+
+"That is because for a long time the birds have not been
+protected; they have gone farther out."
+
+"They must be protected again: we must manage to bring the birds
+back, must we not?"
+
+"Yes," she answered.
+
+He turned quickly towards her. Perhaps she should not have said
+that, she thought, for had he not said "we"?
+
+To show how far she was from such a thought, she looked towards
+the land. "The clover is not good this year."
+
+"No. What shall you do with the plot next year?"
+
+But she did not fall into the trap. He turned round, but she
+looked away.
+
+Now the rush of the river tossed them up and down in a giddy
+dance, as the force of the stream met the boat. Rafael looked up
+to where they had walked together the first day. He turned to see
+if she were not, by chance, looking in the same direction. Yes,
+she was!
+
+They rowed on towards the landing-place at the parsonage, and he
+spoke once or twice, but she had learned that that was dangerous.
+They reached the beach.
+
+"Helene!" said he, as she jumped on shore with a good-bye in
+passing, "Helene!" But she did not stay. "Helene!" he shouted,
+with such meaning in it that she turned.
+
+She looked at him, but only remained for a moment. No more was
+needed! He rowed home like the greatest conqueror that those
+waters had ever seen. Ever since the Vikings had met together in
+the innermost creek, and left behind them the barrow which is
+still to be seen near the parsonage--yes, ever since the elk of
+the primaeval forest, with mighty antlers, swam away from the doe
+which he had won in combat, to the other which he heard on the
+opposite shore. Since the first swarm of ants, like a waving fan,
+danced up and down in the sunlight, on its one day of flight.
+Since the first seals struggled against each other to reach the
+one whom they saw lie sunning herself on the rocks.
+
+Fru Kaas had seen them pass as they rowed out at a furious pace.
+She had seen them row slowly back, and she understood everything.
+No sooner had the cement stone been found than--
+
+She paced up and down; she wept.
+
+She did not put any dependence on his constancy; in any case it
+was too early for Rafael to settle himself here: he had something
+very different before him. The cement stone would not run away
+from him, or the girl either, if there were anything serious in
+it. She regarded his meeting with Helene as merely an obstacle in
+the way, which barred his further progress.
+
+Rafael rowed towards home, bending to his oars till the water
+foamed under the bow of his boat. Now he has landed; now he drags
+the boat up as if she were an eel-pot. Now he strides quickly up
+to the house.
+
+Frightened, despairing, his mother shrank into the farthest corner
+of the sofa, with her feet drawn up under her, and, as he burst in
+through the door and began to speak, she cried out: "Taisez-vous!
+des egards, s'il vous plait." She stretched out her arms before
+her as if for protection. But now he came, borne on the wings of
+love and happiness. His future was there.
+
+He did what he had never done before: went straight up to her,
+drew her arms down, embraced and kissed her, first on the
+forehead, then on the cheeks, eyes, mouth, ears, neck, wherever he
+could; all without a word.
+
+He was quite beside himself.
+
+"Mad boy," she gasped; "des egards, mais Rafael, donc!--Que--" And
+she threw herself on his breast with her arms round his neck.
+
+"Now you will forsake me, Rafael," she said, crying.
+
+"Forsake you, mother! No one can unite the two wings like Helene."
+
+And now he began a panegyric on her, without measure, and
+unconscious that he said the same thing over and over again. When
+he became quieter, and she was permitted to breathe, she begged to
+be alone: she was used to being alone. In the evening she came
+down to him, and said that, first of all, they ought to go to
+Christiania, and find an expert to examine the cement-bed and
+learn what further should be done. Her cousin, the Government
+Secretary, would be able to advise them, and some of her other
+relations as well. Most of them were engineers and men of
+business. He was reluctant to leave Hellebergene just now, he
+said, she must understand that; besides, they had agreed not to go
+away until the autumn. But she maintained that this was the surest
+way to win Helene; only she begged that, with regard to her,
+things should remain as they were till they had been to
+Christiania. On this point she was inflexible, and it was so
+arranged.
+
+As was their custom, they packed up at once. They drove over to
+the parsonage that same evening to say good-bye. They were all
+very merry there: on Fru Kaas's side because she was uneasy, and
+wished to conceal the fact by an appearance of liveliness; on the
+Dean's part because he really was in high spirits at the discovery
+which promised prosperity both to Hellebergene and the district;
+on his wife's because she suspected something. The most hearty
+good wishes were therefore expressed for their journey.
+
+Rafael had availed himself of the general preoccupation to
+exchange a few last words with Helene in a corner. He obtained a
+half-promise from her that when he wrote she would answer; but he
+was careful not to say that he had spoken to his mother. He felt
+that Helene would be startled by a proceeding which came quite
+naturally to him.
+
+As they drove away, he waved his hat as long as they remained in
+sight. The waving was returned, first by all, but finally by only
+one.
+
+The summer evening was light and warm, but not light enough, not
+warm enough, not wide enough; there did not seem room enough in it
+for him; it was not bright enough to reflect his happiness. He
+could not sleep, yet he did not wish to talk; companionship or
+solitude were alike distasteful to him. He thought seriously of
+walking or rowing over to the parsonage again and knocking at the
+window of Helene's room. He actually went down to the boathouse
+and got out the boat. But perhaps it would frighten her, and
+possibly injure his own cause. So he rowed out and out to the
+farthest islands, and there he frightened the birds. At his
+approach they rose: first a few, then many, then all protested in
+a hideous chorus of wild screams. He was enveloped in an angry
+crowd, a pandemonium of birds. But it did not ruffle his good
+humour. "Wait a bit," he said to them. "Wait a bit, until the
+islands at Hellebergene are 'protected,' and the whole estate as
+well. Then you shall come and be happy with us. Good-bye till
+then!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+
+He came to Christiania like a tall ship gay with flags. His love
+was the music on board.
+
+His numerous relations were ready to receive him. Of these many
+were engineers, who were a jour with all his writings, which they
+had taken care should be well known. Some of the largest
+mechanical undertakings in the country were in their hands, so
+that they had connections in every direction.
+
+Once more the family had a genius in its midst; that is to say,
+one to make a show with. Rafael went from entertainment to
+entertainment, from presentation to presentation, and wherever he
+or his mother went court was paid to them.
+
+In all this the ladies of the family were even more active than
+their lords; and they had not been in the town many days before
+every one knew that they were to be the rage.
+
+There are some people who always will hold aloof. They are as
+irresponsive as a sooty kettle when you strike it. They are like
+peevish children who say "I won't," or surly old dogs who growl at
+every one. But HE was so exceedingly genial, a capital fellow with
+the highest spirits. He had looks as well; he was six feet high;
+and all those six feet were clothed in perfect taste. He had large
+flashing eyes and a broad forehead. He was practised in making
+clear to others all in which he was interested, and at such times
+how handsome he looked! He was a thorough man of the world, able
+to converse in several languages at the cosmopolitan dinners which
+were a speciality of the Ravns. He was the owner of one of the few
+extensive estates in Norway, and had the control, it was said, of
+a considerable fortune besides.
+
+The half of this would have been enough to set all tongues
+wagging; therefore, first the family, then their friends, then the
+whole town feted him. He was a nine days' wonder! One must know
+the critical, unimaginative natives of Christiania, who daily pick
+each other to pieces to fill the void in their existences; one
+must have admired their endless worrying of threadbare topics to
+understand what it must be when they got hold of a fresh theme.
+
+Nothing which flies before the storm is more dangerous than desert
+sand, nothing can surpass a Christiania FUROR.
+
+When it became known that two of his relations who were conversant
+with the subject, together with a distinguished geologist and a
+superintendent of mines, had been down to Hellebergene with
+Rafael, and had found that his statements were well grounded, he
+was captured and borne off in triumph twenty times a day. It was
+trying work, but HE was always in the vein, and ready to take the
+rough with the smooth. In all respects the young madcap was up to
+the standard, so that day and night passed in a ceaseless whirl,
+which left every one but himself breathless. The glorious month at
+Hellebergene had done good. He was drawn into endless jovial
+adventures, so strange, so audacious, that one would have staked
+one's existence that such things were impossible in Christiania.
+But great dryness begets thirst. He was in the humour of a boy who
+has got possession of a jam-pot, whose mouth, nose, and hands are
+all besmirched. It is thus that ladies like children best; then
+they are the sweetest things in the world.
+
+Like a tall, full-grown mountain-ash covered by a flock of
+starlings, he was the centre of a fluttering crowd. It only
+remained for him to be deified, and this too came to pass. One day
+he visited several factories, giving a hint here, another there
+(he had great practical knowledge and a quick eye) and every hint
+was of value.
+
+At last in a factory of something the same description as the one
+in France where he had been the means of economising half the
+motive power, he suggested a similar plan; he saw on the spot how
+it could be effected. This became the subject of much
+conversation. It grew and grew, it rose like the sea after days of
+westerly gales. This new genius, but little over twenty, would
+surely some day be the wonder of the country. It soon became the
+fashion for every manufacturer to invite him to visit his factory,
+and it was only after they were convinced that they had a god
+among them that it became serious, for enthusiasm in a
+manufacturer strikes every one. The ladies only waited for this
+important moment to go at a bound from the lowest degree of sense
+to the fifth degree of madness. Their eyes danced on him like
+sunlight on polished metal. He himself paid little heed to degree
+or temperature; he was too happy in his genial contentment, and
+too indifferent as well. One thing which greatly helped to bring
+him to the right pitch was the family temperament, for it was so
+like his own. He was a Ravn through and through, with perhaps a
+little grain of Kaas added. He was what they called pure Ravn,
+quite unalloyed. He seemed to them to have come straight from the
+fountain-head of their race, endowed with its primitive strength.
+This strong physical attribute had perhaps made his abilities more
+fertile, but the family claimed the abilities, too, as their own.
+
+Through Hans Ravn, Rafael had learned to value the companionship
+of his relations; now he had it in perfection. For every word that
+he said appreciative laughter was ready--it really sparkled round
+him. When he disagreed with prevailing tastes, prejudices, and
+morals, they disagreed too. When his precocious intelligence burst
+upon them, they were always ready to applaud. They even met him
+half-way--they could foresee the direction of his thoughts. As he
+was young in years and disposition, and at the same time knew more
+than most young people, he suited both old and young. Ah! how he
+prospered in Norway!
+
+His mother went with him everywhere. Her life had at one time
+appeared to her relations to be most objectless, but how much she
+had made of it! They respected her persevering efforts to attain
+the goal, and she became aware of this. In the most elegant
+toilettes, with her discreet manner and distinguished deportment,
+she was hurried from party to party, from excursion to excursion,
+until it became too much for her.
+
+It went too far, too; her taste was offended by it; she grew
+frightened. But the train of dissipation went on without her, like
+a string of carriages which bore him along with it while she was
+shaken off. Her eyes followed the cloud of dust far away, and the
+roll of the wheels echoed back to her.
+
+Helene--how about Helene? Was she too out in the cold? Far from
+it. Rafael was as certain that she was with him as that his gold
+watch was next his heart. The very first day that he arrived he
+wrote a letter to her. It was not long, he had not time for that,
+but it was thoroughly characteristic. He received an answer at
+once; the hostess of the pension brought it to him herself. He was
+so immensely delighted that the lady, who was related to the Dean
+and who had noticed the post mark, divined the whole affair--a
+thing which amused him greatly.
+
+But Helene's letter was evasive; she evidently knew him too little
+to dare to speak out.
+
+He never found time to draw the hostess into conversation on the
+subject, however. He came home late, he got up late, and then
+there were always friends waiting for him; so that he was not seen
+in the pension again until he returned to dress for dinner, during
+which time the carriage waited at the door, for he never got home
+till the last moment.
+
+When could he write? It would soon all be done with, and then home
+to Helene!
+
+The business respecting the cement detained him longer than he had
+anticipated. His mother made complications; not that she opposed
+the formation of a company, but she raised many difficulties: she
+should certainly prefer to have the whole affair postponed. He had
+no time to talk her round, besides, she irritated him. He told it
+to the hostess.
+
+A curious being, this hostess, who directed the pension, the
+business of the inmates, and a number of children, without
+apparent effort. She was a widow; two of her children were nearly
+twenty, but she looked scarcely thirty. Tall, dark, clever, with
+eyes like glowing coals; decided, ready in conversation as in
+business, like an officer long used to command, always trusted,
+always obeyed; one yielded oneself involuntarily to her matter-of-
+course way of arranging everything, and she was obliging, even
+self-sacrificing, to those she liked--it was true that that was
+not everybody. This absence of reserve was especially
+characteristic of her, and was another reason why all relied on
+her. She had long ago taken up Fru Kaas--entertained her first and
+foremost. Angelika Nagel used in conversation modern Christiania
+slang which is the latest development of the language. In the
+choice of expressions, words such as hideous were applied to what
+was the very opposite of hideous, such as "hideously amusing,"
+"hideously handsome." "Snapping" to anything that was liquid, as
+"snapping good punch." One did not say "PRETTY" but "quite too
+pretty" or "hugely pretty." On the other hand, one did not say
+"bad" for anything serious, but with comical moderation "baddish."
+Anything that there was much of went by miles; for instance,
+"miles of virtue." This slipshod style of talk, which the idlers
+of large towns affect, had just become the fashion in Christiania.
+All this seemed new and characteristic to the careless emancipated
+party which had arisen as a protest against the prudery which Fru
+Kaas, in her time, had combated. The type therefore amused her:--
+she studied it.
+
+Angelika Nagel relieved her of all her business cares, which were
+only play to her. It was the same thing with the question of the
+cement undertaking. In an apparently careless manner she let drop
+what had been said and done about it, which had its effect on Fru
+Kaas. Soon things had progressed so far that it became necessary
+to consult Rafael about it, and as he was difficult to catch, she
+sat up for him at night. The first time that she opened the door
+for him he was absolutely shy, and when he heard what she wanted
+him for he was above measure grateful. The next time he kissed
+her! She laughed and ran away without speaking to him--that was
+all he got for his pains. But he had held her in his arms, and he
+glowed with a suddenly awakened passion.
+
+She, in the meantime, kept out of his way, even during the day he
+never saw her unless he sought her. But when he least expected it
+she again met him at the door; there was something which she
+really MUST say to him. There was a struggle, but at last she
+twisted herself away from him and disappeared. He whispered after
+her as loud as he dared, "Then I shall go away!"
+
+But while he was undressing she slipped into his room.
+
+The next day, before he was quite awake, the postman brought him
+the warrant for a post-office order for fifteen thousand francs.
+He thought that there must be a mistake in the name, or else that
+it was a commission that had been entrusted to him. No! it was
+from the French manufacturer whose working expenses he had reduced
+so greatly. He permitted himself, he wrote, to send this as a
+modest honorarium. He had not been able to do so sooner, but now
+hoped that it would not end there. He awaited Rafael's
+acknowledgment with great anxiety, as he was not sure of his
+address.
+
+Rafael was up and dressed in a trice. He told his news to every
+one, ran down to his mother and up again; but he had not been a
+moment alone before the superabundance of happiness and sense of
+victory frightened him. Now there must be an end of all this, now
+he would go home. He had not had the slightest prickings of
+conscience, the slightest longings, until now; all at once they
+were uncontrollable. SHE stood upon the hilltop, pure and noble.
+It became agonising. He must go at once, or it would drive him
+mad. This anxiety was made less acute by the sight of his mother's
+sincere pleasure. She came up to him when she heard that he had
+shut himself into his room. They had a really comfortable talk
+together--finally about the state of their finances. They lived in
+the pension because they could no longer afford to live in an
+hotel. The estate would bring nothing in until the timber once
+more became profitable, and her capital was no longer intact--
+notwithstanding the prohibition. Now she was ready to let him
+arrange about the cement company. On this he went out into the
+town, where his court soon gathered round him.
+
+But the large sum of money which was required could not be raised
+in a day, so the affair dragged on. He grew impatient, he must and
+would go; and finally his mother induced her cousin, the
+Government Secretary, to form the company, and they prepared to
+leave. They paid farewell visits to some of their friends, and
+sent cards and messages of thanks to the rest. Everything was
+ready, the very day had come, when Rafael, before he was up,
+received a letter from the Dean.
+
+An anonymous letter from Christiania, he wrote, had drawn his
+attention to Rafael's manner of life there, and he had in
+consequence obtained further information, the result being that he
+was, that day, sending his daughter abroad. There was nothing more
+in the letter. But Rafael could guess what had passed between
+father and daughter.
+
+He dressed himself and rushed down to his mother. His indignation
+against the rascally creatures who had ruined his and Helene's
+future--"Who could it have been?"--was equalled by his despair.
+She was the only one he cared for; all the others might go to the
+deuce. He felt angry, too, that the Dean, or any one else, should
+have dared to treat him in this way, to dismiss him like a
+servant, not to speak to him, not to put him in a position to
+speak for himself.
+
+His mother had read the letter calmly, and now she listened to him
+calmly, and when he became still more furious she burst out
+laughing. It was not their habit to settle their differences by
+words; but this time it flashed into his mind that she had not
+persuaded him to come here merely on account of the cement, but in
+order to separate him from Helene, and this he said to her.
+
+"Yes," he added, "now it will be just the same with me as it was
+with my father, and it will be your fault this time as well." With
+this he went out.
+
+Fru Kaas left Christiania shortly afterwards, and he left the same
+evening--for France.
+
+From France he wrote the most pressing letter to the Dean, begging
+him to allow Helene to return home, so that they could be married
+at once. Whatever the Dean had heard about his life in Christiania
+had nothing to do with the feelings which he nourished for Helene.
+She, and she alone, had the power to bind him; he would remain
+hers for life.
+
+The Dean did not answer him.
+
+A month later he wrote again, acknowledging this time that he had
+behaved foolishly. He had been merely thoughtless. He had been led
+on by other things. The details were deceptive, but he swore that
+this should be the end of it all. He would show that he deserved
+to be trusted; nay, he HAD shown it ever since he left
+Christiania. He begged the Dean to be magnanimous. This was
+practically exile for him, for he could not return to Hellebergene
+without Helene. Everything which he loved there had become
+consecrated by her presence; every project which he had formed
+they had planned together; in fact, his whole future--He fretted
+and pined till he found it impossible to work as seriously as he
+wished to do.
+
+This time he received an answer--a brief one.
+
+The Dean wrote that only a lengthened probation could convince
+them of the sincerity of his purpose.
+
+So it was not to be home, then, and not work; at all events, not
+work of any value. He knew his mother too well to doubt that now
+the cement business was shelved, whether the company were formed
+or not--he was only too sure of that.
+
+He had written to his mother, begging earnestly to be forgiven for
+what he had said. She must know that it was only the heat of the
+moment. She must know how fond he was of her, and how unhappy he
+felt at being in discord with her on the subject which was, and
+always would be, most dear to him.
+
+She answered him prettily and at some length, without a word about
+what had happened or about Helene. She gave him a great deal of
+news, among other things what the Dean intended to do about the
+estate.
+
+From this he concluded that she was on the same terms with the
+Dean as before. Perhaps his latest reasons for deferring the
+affair was precisely this: that he saw that Fru Kaas did not
+interest herself for it.
+
+It wore on towards the autumn. All this uncertainty made him feel
+lonely, and his thoughts turned towards his friends at
+Christiania. He wrote to tell them that he intended to make
+towards home. He meant, however, to remain a little time at
+Copenhagen.
+
+At Copenhagen he met Angelika Nagel again. She was in company with
+two of his student friends. She was in the highest spirits,
+glowing with health and beauty, and with that jaunty assurance
+which turns the heads of young men.
+
+He had, during all this time, banished the subject of his intrigue
+from his mind, and he came there without the least intention of
+renewing it; but now, for the first time in his life, he became
+jealous!
+
+It was quite a novel feeling, and he was not prepared to resist
+it. He grew jealous if he so much as saw her in company with
+either of the young men. She had a hearty outspoken manner, which
+rekindled his former passion.
+
+Now a new phase of his life began, divided between furious
+jealousy and passionate devotion. This led, after her departure,
+to an interchange of letters, which ended in his following her to
+Christiania.
+
+On board the steamer he overheard a conversation between the
+steward and stewardess. "She sat up for him of nights till she got
+what she wanted, and now she has got hold of him."
+
+It was possible that this conversation did not concern him, but it
+was equally possible that the woman might have been in the
+pension at Christiania. He did not know her.
+
+It is strange that in all such intrigues as his with Angelika the
+persons concerned are always convinced that they are invisible. He
+believed that, up to this time, no human being had known anything
+about it. The merest suspicion that this was not the case made it
+altogether loathsome.
+
+The pension--Angelika--the letters. He would be hanged if he
+would go on with it for any earthly inducement. Had Angelika
+angled for him and landed him like a stupid fat fish? He had been
+absolutely unsuspicious. The whole affair had been without
+importance, until they met again at Copenhagen. Perhaps THAT, too,
+had been a deep-laid plan.
+
+Nothing can more wound a man's vanity than to find that, believing
+himself a victor, he is in truth a captive.
+
+Rafael paced the deck half the night, and when he reached
+Christiania went to an hotel, intending to go home the next day to
+Hellebergene, come what would. This and everything of the kind
+must end for ever: it simply led straight to the devil. When once
+he was at home, and could find out where Helene was, the rest
+would soon be settled.
+
+From the hotel he went up to Angelika Nagel's pension to say that
+some luggage which was there was to be sent down to the hotel at
+once--he was leaving that afternoon.
+
+He had dined and gone up to his room to pack, when Angelika stood
+before him. She was at once so pretty and so sad-looking that he
+had never seen anything more pathetic.
+
+Had he really kept away from her house? Was he going at once?
+
+She wept so despairingly that he, who was prepared for anything
+rather than to see her so inconsolable, answered her evasively.
+
+Their relations, he said, had had no more significance than a
+chance meeting. This they both understood; therefore she must
+realise that, sooner or later, it must end. And now the time was
+come.
+
+Indeed, it had more significance, she said. There had never been
+any one to whom she had been so much attached; this she had proved
+to him. Now she had come here to tell him that she was enceinte.
+She was in as great despair about it as any one could be. It was
+ruin for herself and her children. She had never contemplated
+anything so frightful, but her mad love had carried her away; so
+now she was where she deserved to be.
+
+Rafael did not answer, for he could not collect his thoughts. She
+sat at a table, her face buried in her hands, but his eye fell on
+her strong arms in the close-fitting sleeves, her little foot
+thrust from beneath her dress; he saw how her whole frame was
+shaken by sobs. Nevertheless, what first made him collect his
+thoughts was not sympathy with her who was here before him; it was
+the thought of Helene, of the Dean, of his mother: what would THEY
+say?
+
+As though she were conscious whither his thoughts had flown, she
+raised her head. "Will you really go away from me?" What despair
+was in her face! The strong woman was weaker than a child.
+
+He stood erect before her, beside his open trunk. He, too, was
+absolutely miserable.
+
+"What good will it do for me to stay here?" he asked gently.
+
+Her eyes fixed themselves on him, dilating, becoming clearer every
+moment. Her mouth grew scornful. She seemed to grow taller every
+moment.
+
+"You will marry me if you are an honourable man!"
+
+"Marry--you?" he exclaimed, first startled, then disdainful. An
+evil expression came into her eyes; she thrust her head forward;
+the whole woman collected herself for the attack like a tiger-cat,
+but it ended with a violent blow on the table.
+
+"Yes you SHALL, devil take me!" she whispered.
+
+She rushed past him to the window. What was she going to do?
+
+She opened it, screamed out he could not clearly hear what, leant
+far out, and screamed again; then closed it, and turned towards
+him, threatening, triumphant. He was as white as a sheet, not
+because he was frightened or dreaded her threats, but because he
+recognised in her a mortal enemy. He braced himself for the
+struggle.
+
+She saw this at once. She was conscious of his strength before he
+had made a movement. There was that in his eye, in his whole
+demeanour, which SHE would never be able to overcome: a look of
+determination which one would not willingly contest. If he had not
+understood her till now, he had equally revealed himself to her.
+
+All the more wildly did she love him. He rejoiced that he had
+taken no notice of what she had done, but turned to put the last
+things into his trunk and fasten it. Then she came close up to
+him, in more complete contrition, penitence, and wretchedness than
+he had ever seen in life or art. Her face stiffened with terror,
+her eyes fixed, her whole frame rigid, only her tears flowed
+quietly, without a sob. She must and would have him. She seemed to
+draw him to herself as into a vortex: her love had become the
+necessity of her life, its utterances the wild cry of despair.
+
+He understood it now. But he put the things into his trunk and
+fastened it, took a few steps about the room, as if he were alone,
+with such an expression of face that she herself saw that the
+thing was impossible.
+
+"Do you not believe," she said quietly, "that I would relieve you
+of all cares, so that you could go on with your own work? Have you
+not seen that I can manage your mother?" She paused a moment, then
+added: "Hellebergene--I know the place. The Dean is a relation of
+mine. I have been there; that would be something that I could take
+charge of; do you not think so? And the cement quarries," she
+added; "I have a turn for business: it should be no trouble to
+you." She said this in an undertone. She had a slight lisp, which
+gave her an air of helplessness. "Don't go away, to-day, at any
+rate. Think it over," she added, weeping bitterly again.
+
+He felt that he ought to comfort her.
+
+She came towards him, and throwing her arms round him, she clung
+to him in her despair and eagerness. "Don't go, don't go!" She
+felt that he was yielding. "Never," she whispered, "since I have
+been a widow have I given myself to any one but you; and so judge
+for yourself." She laid her head on his shoulder and sobbed
+bitterly.
+
+"It has come upon me so suddenly," he said; "I cannot--"
+
+"Then take time," she interrupted in a whisper, and took a hasty
+kiss. "Oh, Rafael!" She twined her arms round him: her touch
+thrilled through him--
+
+Some one knocked at the door: they started away from each other.
+It was the man who had come for the luggage. Rafael flushed
+crimson. "I shall not go till to-morrow," he said.
+
+When the man had left the room Angelika sprang towards Rafael. She
+thanked and kissed him. Oh, how she beamed with delight and
+exultation! She was like a girl of twenty, or rather like a young
+man, for there was something masculine in her manner as she left
+him.
+
+But the light and fire were no sooner withdrawn than his spirits
+fell. A little later he lay at full length on the sofa, as though
+in a grave. He felt as though he could never get up from it again.
+What was his life now? For there is a dream in every life which is
+its soul, and when the dream is gone the life appears a corpse.
+
+This, then, was the fulfilment of his forebodings. Hither the
+ravens had followed the wild beast which dwelt in him. It would on
+longer play and amuse him, but strike its claws into him in
+earnest, overthrow him, and lap his fresh-spilt blood.
+
+But it was none the less certain that if he left her she would be
+ruined, she and her child. Then no one would consider him as an
+honourable man, least of all himself.
+
+During his last sojourn in France, when he could not settle down
+to a great work which was constantly dawning before him, he had
+thought to himself--You have taken life too lightly. Nothing great
+ever comes to him who does so.
+
+Now, perhaps, when he did his duty here; took upon himself the
+burden of his fault towards her, himself, and others--and bore it
+like a man; then perhaps he would be able to utilise all his
+powers. That was what his mother had done, and she had succeeded.
+
+But with the thought of his mother came the thought of Helene, of
+his dream. It was flying from him like a bird of passage from the
+autumn. He lay there and felt as though he could never get up
+again.
+
+From amid the turmoil of the last summer there came to his
+recollection two individuals, in whom he reposed entire
+confidence: a young man and his wife. He went to see them the same
+evening and laid the facts honestly before them, for now, at all
+events, he was honest. The conclusive proof of being so is to be
+able to tell everything about oneself as he did now.
+
+They heard him with dismay, but their advice was remarkable. He
+ought to wait and see if she were enceinte.
+
+This aroused his spirit of contradiction. There was no doubt about
+it, for she was perfectly truthful. But she might be mistaken; she
+ought to make quite sure. This suggestion, too, shocked him; but
+he agreed that she should come and talk things over with them.
+They knew her.
+
+She came the next day. They said to her, what they could not very
+well say to Rafael, that she would ruin him. The wife especially
+did not spare her. A highly gifted young man like Rafael Kaas,
+with such excellent prospects in every way, must not, when little
+more than twenty, burden himself with a middle-aged wife and a
+number of children. He was far from rich, he had told her so
+himself; his life would be that of a beast of burden, and that
+too, before he had learned to bear the yoke. If he had to work, to
+feed so many people, he might strain himself to the uttermost, he
+would still remain mediocre. They would both suffer under this, be
+disappointed and discontented. He must not pay so heavy a price
+for an indiscretion for which she was ten times more to blame than
+he. What did she imagine people would say? He who was so popular,
+so sought after. They would fall upon her like rooks at a rooks'
+parliament and pick her to pieces. They would, without exception,
+believe the worst.
+
+The husband asked her if she were quite sure that she was
+enceinte: she ought to make quite certain.
+
+Angelika Nazel reddened, and answered, half scornful, half
+laughing, that she ought to know.
+
+"Yes," he retorted, "many people have said that--who were
+mistaken. If it is understood that you are to be married on
+account of your condition, and it should afterwards turn out that
+you were mistaken, what do you suppose that people will say? for
+of course it will get about."
+
+She reddened again and sprang to her feet. "They can say what they
+please." After a pause she added: "But God knows I do not wish to
+make him unhappy."
+
+To conceal her emotion she turned away from them, but the wife
+would not give up. She suggested that Angelika should write to
+Rafael without further delay, to set him free and let him return
+home to his mother; there they would be able to arrange matters.
+Angelika was so capable that she could earn a living anywhere.
+Rafael too ought to help her.
+
+"I shall write to his mother," Angelika said. "She shall know all
+about it, so that she may understand for what he is responsible."
+
+This they thought reasonable, and Angelika sat down and wrote. She
+frequently showed agitation, but she went on quickly, steadily,
+sheet after sheet. Just then came a ring--a messenger with a
+letter. The maid brought it in. Her mistress was about to take it,
+but it was not for her; it was for Angelika--they both recognised
+Rafael's careless handwriting.
+
+Angelika opened it--grew crimson; for he wrote that the result of
+his most serious considerations was, that neither she nor her
+children should be injured by him. He was an honourable man who
+would bear his own responsibilities, not let others be burdened by
+them.
+
+Angelika handed the letter to her friend, then tore up the one
+which she had been writing, and left the house.
+
+Her friend stood thinking to herself--The good that is in us must
+go bail for the evil, so we must rest and be satisfied.
+
+The discovery which she had made had often been made before, but
+it was none the less true.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+
+The next day they were married. That night, long after his wife
+had fallen into her usual healthy sleep, Rafael thought
+sorrowfully of his lost Paradise. HE could not sleep. As he lay
+there he seemed to look out over a meadow, which had no
+springtime, and therefore no flowers. He retraced the events of
+the past day. His would be a marred life which had never known the
+sweet joys of courtship.
+
+Angelika did not share his beliefs. She was a stern realist, a
+sneering sceptic, in the most literal sense a cynic.
+
+Her even breathing, her regular features, seemed to answer him.
+"Hey-dey, my boy, we shall be merry for a thousand years! Better
+sleep now, you will need sleep if you mean to try which of us is
+the stronger."
+
+The next day their marriage was the marvel of the town and
+neighbourhood.
+
+"Just like his mother!" people exclaimed; "what promise there was
+in her! She might have chosen so as to have been now in one of the
+best positions in the country--when, lo and behold! she went and
+made the most idiotic marriage. The most idiotic? No, the son's is
+more idiotic still." And so on and so forth.
+
+Most people seem naturally impelled to exalt the hero of the hour
+higher than they themselves intend, and when a reaction comes, to
+decry him in an equal degree. Few people see with their own eyes,
+and on special occasions even magnifying or diminishing glasses
+are called into play with most amusing results.
+
+"Rafael Kaas a handsome fellow?--well, yes, but too big, too fair,
+no repose, altogether too restless. Rich? He? He has not a stiver!
+The savings eaten up long ago, nothing coming in, they have been
+encroaching on their capital for some time; and the beds of cement
+stone--who the deuce would join with him in any large undertaking?
+They talk about his gifts, his genius even; but IS he very highly
+gifted? Is it anything more than what he has acquired? The saving
+of motive power at the factory? Was that anything more than a mere
+repetition of what he had done before?--and that, of course, only
+what he had seen elsewhere."
+
+Just the same with the hints which he had given. "Merely close
+personal observation; for it must be admitted that he had more of
+that than most people; but as for ingenuity! Well, he could make
+out a good case for himself, but that was about the extent of his
+ingenuity."
+
+"His earlier articles, as well as those which had recently
+appeared on the use of electricity in baking and tanning--could
+you call those discoveries? Let us see what he will invent now
+that he has come home, and cannot get ideas from reading and from
+seeing people."
+
+Rafael noticed this change--first among the ladies, who all seemed
+to have been suddenly blown away, with a few exceptions, who did
+not respect a marriage like his, and who would not give in.
+
+His relations, also, held somewhat aloof. "It was not thus that he
+showed himself a true Ravn. He was so in temperament and
+disposition, perhaps, but it was just his defect that he was only
+a half-breed."
+
+The change of front was complete: he noticed it on all hands. But
+he was man enough, and had sufficient obstinacy as well, to let
+himself be urged on by this to hard work, and in his wife there
+was still more of the same feeling.
+
+He had a sense of elevation in having done his duty, and as long
+as this tension lasted it kept him up to the mark. On the day of
+his marriage (from early in the morning until the time when the
+ceremony took place) he employed himself in writing to his mother;
+a wonderful, a solemn letter in the sight of the All-Knowing,--the
+cry of a tortured soul in utmost peril.
+
+It depended on his mother whether she would receive them and let
+their life become all that was now possible. Angelika--their
+business, manager, housekeeper, chief. He--devoted to his
+experiments. She--the tender mother, the guide of both.
+
+It seemed to him that their future depended on this letter and the
+answer to it, and he wrote in that spirit. Never had he so fully
+depicted himself, so fully searched his own heart.
+
+It was the outcome of what he had lived through during these last
+few days, the mellowing influence of his struggles during the
+night watches. Nothing could have been more candid.
+
+He was pained that he did not receive an answer at once, although
+he realised what a blow it would be to her. He understood that, to
+begin with, it would destroy all her dreams, as it had already
+destroyed. But he relied on her optimistic nature, which he had
+never known surpassed, and on the depth of her purpose in all that
+she undertook. He knew that she drew strength and resolution from
+all that was deepest in their common life.
+
+Therefore he gave her time, notwithstanding Angelika's
+restlessness, which could hardly be controlled. She even began to
+sneer; but there was something holy in his anticipation: her words
+fell unheeded.
+
+When on the third day he had received no letter, he telegraphed,
+merely these words: "Mother, send me an answer." The wires had
+never carried anything more fraught with unspoken grief.
+
+He could not return home. He remained alone outside the town until
+the evening, by which time the answer might well have arrived. It
+was there.
+
+"My beloved son, YOU are always welcome; most of all when you are
+unhappy!" The word YOU was underlined. He grew deadly pale, and
+went slowly into his own room. There Angelika let him remain for a
+while in peace, then came in and lit the lamp. He could see that
+she was much agitated, and that every now and then she cast hasty
+glances at him.
+
+"Do you know what, Rafael? you ought simply to go straight to your
+mother. It is too bad, both on account of our future and hers. We
+shall be ruined by gossip and trash."
+
+He was too unhappy to be contemptuous. She had no respect for
+anybody or anything, he thought; why, then, should he be angry
+because she felt none, either for his mother or for his position
+in regard to her? But how vulgar Angelika seemed to him, as she
+bent over a troublesome lamp and let her impatience break out! Her
+mouth but too easily acquired a coarse expression. Her small head
+would rear itself above her broad shoulders with a snake-like
+expression, and her thick wrist--
+
+"Well," she said, "when all is said and done, that disgusting
+Hellebergene is not worth making a fuss over."
+
+Now she is annoyed with herself, he thought, and must have her
+say. She will not rest until she has picked a quarrel; but she
+shall not have that satisfaction.
+
+"After all that has been said and all that has happened there--"
+
+But this, too, missed fire. "How could I have supposed that she
+could manage my mother?" He got up and paced the room. "Is that
+what mother felt? Yet they were such good friends. I suspected
+nothing then. How is it that mother's instinct is always more
+delicate? have I blunted mine?"
+
+When, a little later, Angelika came in again, he looked so unhappy
+that she was struck by it, and she then showed herself so kind and
+fertile in resource on his behalf, and there was such sunshine in
+her cheerfulness and flow of spirits during the evening, that he
+actually brightened up under it, and thought--If mother could have
+brought herself to try the experiment, perhaps after all it might
+have answered. There is so much that is good and capable in this
+curious creature.
+
+He went to the children. From the first day he and they had taken
+to each other. They had been unhappy in the great pension, with a
+mother who seldom came near them or took any notice of them,
+except as clothes to be patched, mouths to feed, or faults to be
+punished.
+
+Rafael had in his nature the unconventionality which delights in
+children's confidence, and he felt a desire to love and to be
+loved. Children are quick to feel this.
+
+They only wasted Angelika's time. They were in her way now more
+than ever; for it may be said at once that, Rafael had become
+EVERYTHING to her. This was the fascination in her, and whatever
+happened, it never lost its power. Her tenderness, her devotion,
+were boundless. By the aid of her personal charm, her resourceful
+ingenuity, she obtained every advantage for him within her range,
+and even beyond it. It was felt in her devotion by night and day,
+when anything was to be done, in an untiring zeal such as only so
+strong and healthy a woman could have had in her power to render.
+But in words it did not show itself, hardly even in looks: except,
+perhaps, while she fought to win him, but never since then.
+
+Had she been able to adhere to one line of conduct, if only for a
+few weeks at a time, and let herself be guided by her never-
+failing love, he would, in this stimulating atmosphere, have made
+of his married life what his mother, in spite of all, had made of
+hers.
+
+Why did not this happen? Because the jealousy which she had
+aroused in him and which had drawn him to her again was now
+reversed.
+
+They were hardly married before it was she who was jealous! Was it
+strange? A middle-aged woman, even though she be endowed with the
+strongest personality and the widest sympathy, when she wins a
+young husband who is the fashion--wins him as Angelika won hers--
+begins to live in perpetual disquietude lest any one should take
+him from her. Had she not taken him herself?
+
+If we were to say that she was jealous of every human being who
+came there, man or woman, old or young, beside those whom he met
+elsewhere, it would be an exaggeration, but this exaggeration
+throws a strong light upon the state of things, which actually
+existed.
+
+If he became at all interested in conversation with any one, she
+always interrupted. Her face grew hard, her right foot began to
+move; and if this did not suffice, she struck in with sulky or
+provoking remarks, no matter who was there.
+
+If something were said in praise of any one, and it seemed to
+excite his interest, she would pooh-pooh it, literally with a
+"pooh!" a shrug of the shoulders, a toss of the head, or an
+impatient tap of the foot.
+
+At first he imagined that she really knew something
+disadvantageous about all those whom she thus disparaged, and he
+was filled with admiration at her acquaintance with half Norway.
+He believed in her veracity as he believed in few things. He
+believed, too, that it was unbounded like so many of her
+qualities. She said the most cynical things in the plainest manner
+without apparent design.
+
+But little by little it dawned upon him that she said precisely
+what it pleased her to say, according to the humour that she was
+in.
+
+One day, as they were going to table--he had come in late and was
+hungry--he was delighted to see that there were oysters.
+
+"Oysters! at this time of the year," he cried. "They must be very
+expensive."
+
+"Pooh! that was the old woman, you know. She persuaded me to take
+them for you. I got them for next to nothing."
+
+"That was odd; you have been out, then, too?"
+
+"Yes, and I saw YOU; you were walking with Emma Ravn."
+
+He understood at once, by the tone of her voice, that this was not
+permitted, but all the same he said, "Yes; how sweet she is! so
+fresh and candid."
+
+"She! Why, she had a child before she was married."
+
+"Emma? Emma Ravn?"
+
+"Yes! But I do not know who by."
+
+"Do you know, Angelika, I do not believe that," he said solemnly.
+
+"You can do as you please about that, but she was at the pension
+at the time, so you can judge for yourself if I am right."
+
+He could not believe that any human being could so belie
+themselves. Emma's eyes, clear as water in a fountain where one
+can count the pebbles at the bottom, rose to his mind, in all
+their innocence. He could not believe that such eyes could lie. He
+grew livid, he could not eat, he left the table. The world was
+nothing but a delusion, the purest was impure.
+
+For a long time after this, whenever he met Emma or her white-
+haired mother, he turned aside, so as not to come face to face
+with them.
+
+He had clung to his relations: their weak points were apparent to
+every one, but their ability and honesty no less so. This one
+story destroyed his confidence, impaired his self-reliance,
+shattered his belief, and thus made him the poorer. How could he
+be fit for anything, when he so constantly allowed himself to be
+befooled?
+
+There was not one word of truth in the whole story.
+
+His simple confidence was held in her grasp, like a child in the
+talons of an eagle; but this did not last much longer.
+
+Fortunately, she was without calculation or perseverance. She did
+not remember one day what she had said the day before; for each
+day she coolly asserted whatever was demanded by the necessity of
+the moment. He, on the contrary, had an excellent memory; and his
+mathematical mind ranged the evidence powerfully against her. Her
+gifts were more aptness and quickness than anything else, they
+were without training, without cohesion, and permeated with
+passion at all points. Therefore he could, at any moment, crush
+her defence; but whenever this happened, it was so evident that
+she had been actuated by jealousy that it flattered his vanity;
+which was the reason why he did not regard it seriously enough--
+did not pursue his advantage. Perhaps if he had done so, he would
+have discovered more, for this jealousy was merely the form which
+her uneasiness took. This uneasiness arose from several causes.
+
+The fact was that she had a past and she had debts which she had
+denied, and now she lived in perpetual dread lest any one should
+enlighten him. If any one got on the scent, she felt sure that
+this would be used against her. It merely depended on what he
+learned--in other words, with whom he associated.
+
+She could disregard anonymous letters because he did so, but there
+were plenty of disagreeable people who might make innuendoes.
+
+She saw that Rafael too, to some extent, avoided his countless
+friends of old days. She did not understand the reason, but it was
+this: that he, as well, felt that they knew more of her than it
+was expedient for HIM to know. She saw that he made ingenious
+excuses for not being seen out with her. This, too, she
+misconstrued. She did not at all understand that he, in his way,
+was quite as frightened as she was of what people might say. She
+believed that he sought the society of others rather than hers. If
+nothing more came of such intercourse, stories might be told. This
+was the reason for her slanders about almost every one he spoke
+to. If they had vilified her, they must be vilified in return.
+
+She had debts, and this could not be concealed unless she
+increased them; this she did with a boldness worthy of a better
+cause. The house was kept on an extravagant scale, with an
+excellent table and great hospitality. Otherwise he would not be
+comfortable at home, she said and believed.
+
+She herself vied with the most fashionably dressed ladies in the
+town. Her daily struggle to maintain her hold on him demanded
+this. It followed, of course, that she got everything for
+"nothing" or "the greatest bargain in the world." There was always
+some one "who almost gave it" to her. He did not know himself how
+much money he spent, perhaps, because she hunted and drove him
+from one thing to another.
+
+Originally he had thought of going abroad; but with a wife who
+knew no foreign languages, with a large family--
+
+Here at home, as he soon discovered, every one had lost confidence
+in him. He dared not take up anything important, or else he wished
+to wait a little before he came to any definite determination. In
+the meantime, he did whatever came to hand, and that was often
+work of a subordinate description. Both from weariness, and from
+the necessity to earn a living, he ended by doing only mediocre
+work, and let things drift.
+
+He always gave out that this was only "provisional." His
+scientific gifts, his inventive genius, with so many pounds on his
+back, did not rise high, but they should yet! He had youth's
+lavish estimate of time and strength, and therefore did not see,
+for a long time, that the large family, the large house were
+weighing him farther and farther down. If only he could have a
+little peace, he thought, he would carry out his present ideas and
+new ones also. He felt such power within him.
+
+But peace was just what he never had. Now we come to the worst, or
+more properly, to the sum of what has gone before. The ceaseless
+uneasiness in which Angelika lived broke out into perpetual
+quarrelling. For one thing, she had no self-command. A caprice, a
+mistake, an anxiety over-ruled everything. She seized the smallest
+opportunities. Again--and this was a most important factor--there
+was her overpowering anxiety to keep possession of him; this drew
+her away from what she should have paid most heed to, in order to
+let him have peace. She continued her lavish housekeeping, she let
+the children drift, she concentrated all her powers on him. Her
+jealousy, her fears, her debts, sapped his fertile mind, destroyed
+his good humour, laid desolate his love of the beautiful and his
+creative power.
+
+He had in particular one great project, which he had often, but
+ineffectually, attempted to mature. The effort to do so had begun
+seriously one day on the heights above Hellebergene, and had
+continued the whole summer. Curiously enough, one morning, as he
+sat at some most wearisome work, Hellebergene and Helene, in the
+spring sunshine, rose before him, and with them his project, lofty
+and smiling, came to him again. Then he begged for a little peace
+in the house.
+
+"Let me be quiet, if only for a month," he said. "Here is some
+money. I have got an idea; I must and will have quiet. In a
+month's time I shall have got on so far that perhaps I shall be
+able to judge if it is worth continuing. It may be that this one
+idea may entirely support us."
+
+This was something which she could understand, and now he was able
+to be quiet.
+
+He had an office in the town, but sometimes took his papers home
+with him in the evenings, for it often happened that something
+would occur to him at one moment or another. She bestowed every
+care on him; she even sat on the stairs while he was asleep at
+midday, to prevent him from being disturbed.
+
+This went on for a fortnight. Then it so chanced that, when he had
+gone out for a walk, she rummaged among his papers, and there,
+among drawings, calculations, and letters, she actually, for once
+in a way, found something. It was in his handwriting and as
+follows:
+
+"More of the mother than the lover in her; more of the solicitude
+of love than of its enjoyment. Rich in her affection, she would
+not squander it in one day with you, but, mother-like, would
+distribute it throughout your life. Instead of the whirl of the
+rapids, a placid stream. Her love was devotion, never absorption.
+YOU were one and SHE was one. Together we should have been more
+powerful than two lovers are wont to be."
+
+There was more of this, but Angelika could not read further, she
+became so furious. Were these his own thoughts, or had he merely
+copied them? There were no corrections, so most likely it was a
+copy. In any case it showed where his thoughts were.
+
+Rafael came quietly home, went straight to his room and lighted a
+candle, even before he took off his overcoat. As he stood he wrote
+down a few formulae, then seized a book, sat down astride of a
+chair, and made a rapid calculation. Just then Angelika came in,
+leaned forward towards him, and said in a low voice:
+
+"You are a nice fellow! Now I know what you have in hand. Look
+there: your secret thoughts are with that beast."
+
+"Beast!" he repeated. His anger at being disturbed, at her having
+found this particular paper, and now the abuse from her coarse
+lips of the most delicate creature he had ever known, and, above
+all, the absolute unexpectedness of the attack, made him lose his
+head.
+
+"How dare you? What do you mean?"
+
+"Don't be a fool. Do you suppose that I don't guess that that is
+meant for the girl who looked after your estate in order to catch
+you?"
+
+She saw that this hit the mark, so she went still further.
+
+"She, the model of virtue! why, when she was a mere girl, she
+disgraced herself with an old man."
+
+As she spoke she was seized by the throat and flung backwards on
+to the sofa, without the grasp being relaxed. She was breathless,
+she saw his face over her; deadly rage was in it. A strength, a
+wildness of which she had no conception, gazed upon her in sensual
+delight at being able to strangle her.
+
+After a wild struggle her arms sank down powerless, her will with
+them; only her eyes remained wide open, in terror and wonderment.
+
+Dare he? "Yes, he dare!" Her eyes grew dim, her limbs began to
+tremble.
+
+"You have taken MY apple, I tell you," was heard in a childish
+voice from the next room, a soft lisping voice.
+
+It came from the most peaceful innocence in the world! It saved
+her!
+
+He rushed out again; but even when the rage had left him which had
+seized upon him and dominated him as a rider does a horse, he was
+still not horrified at himself. His satisfaction at having at
+length made his power felt was too great for that.
+
+But by degrees there came a revulsion. Suppose he had killed her,
+and had to go into penal servitude for the rest of his life for
+it! Had such a possibility come into his life? Might it happen in
+the future? No! no! no! How strange that Angelika should have
+wounded him! How frightful her state of mind must be when she
+could think so odiously of absolutely innocent people; and how
+angry she must have been to behave in such a way towards him, whom
+she loved above all others, indeed, as the only one for whom she
+had to live!
+
+A long, long sum followed: his faults, her faults, and the faults
+of others. He cooled down and began to feel more like himself.
+
+In an hour or two he was fit to go home, to find her on her bed,
+dissolved in tears, prepared at once to throw her arms round his
+neck.
+
+He asked pardon a hundred times, with words, kisses, and caresses.
+
+But with this scene his invention had fled. The spell was broken.
+It never did more than flutter before him, tempting him to pursue
+it once more; but he turned away from the whole subject and began
+to work for money again. Something offered itself just at that
+moment which Angelika had hunted up.
+
+Back to the unending toil again. Now at last it became an
+irritation to him: he chafed as the war horse chafes at being made
+a beast of burden.
+
+This made the scenes at home still worse. Since that episode their
+quarrels knew no bounds. Words were no longer necessary to bring
+them about: a gesture, a look, a remark of his unanswered, was
+enough to arouse the most violent scenes. Hitherto they had been
+restrained by the presence of others, but now it was the same
+whether they were alone or not. Very soon, as far as brutality of
+expression or the triviality of the question was concerned, he was
+as bad or worse than she.
+
+His idle fancy and creative genius found no other vent, but
+overthrew and trampled underfoot many of life's most beautiful
+gifts. Thus he squandered much of the happiness which such talents
+can duly give. Sometimes his daily regrets and sufferings,
+sometimes his passionate nature, were in the ascendant, but the
+cause of his despair was always the same--that this could have
+happened to him. Should he leave her? He would not thus escape.
+The state of the case had touched his conscience at first, later
+he had become fond of the children, and his mother's example said
+to him, "Hold out, hold out!"
+
+The unanimous prediction that this marriage would be dissolved as
+quickly as it had been made he would prove to be untrue. Besides,
+he knew Angelika too well now not to know that he would never
+obtain a separation from her until, with the law at her back, she
+had flayed him alive. He could not get free.
+
+From the first it had been a question of honour and duty; honour
+and duty on account of the child which was to come--and which did
+not come. Here he had a serious grievance against her; but yet, in
+the midst of the tragedy, he could not but be amused at the skill
+with which she turned his own gallantries against him. At last he
+dared not mention the subject, for he only heard in return about
+his gay bachelor life.
+
+The longer this state of things lasted and the more it became
+known, the more incomprehensible it became to most people that
+they did not separate--to himself, too, at times, during sleepless
+nights. But it is sometimes the case that he, who makes a thousand
+small revolts, cannot brace himself to one great one. The endless
+strife itself strengthens the bonds, in that it saps the strength.
+
+He deteriorated. This married life, wearing in every way, together
+with the hard work, resulted in his not being equal to more than
+just the necessities of the day. His initiative and will became
+proportionately deadened.
+
+A strange stagnation developed itself: he had hallucinations,
+visions; he saw himself in them--his father! his mother! all the
+pictures were of a menacing description.
+
+At night he dreamed the most frightful things: his unbridled
+fancy, his unoccupied creative power, took revenge, and all this
+weakened him. He looked with admiration at his wife's robust
+health: she had the physique of a wild beast. But at times their
+quarrels, their reconciliations, brought revelations with them: he
+could perceive her sorrows as well. She did not complain, she did
+not say a word, she could not do so; but at times she wept and
+gave way as only the most despairing can. Her nature was powerful,
+and the struggle of her love beyond belief. The beauty of the
+fulness of life was there, even when she was most repulsive. The
+wild creature, wrestling with her destiny, often gave forth tragic
+gleams of light.
+
+One day his relation, the Government Secretary, met him. They
+usually avoided each other, but to-day he stopped.
+
+"Ah, Rafael," said the dapper little man nervously, "I was coming
+to see you."
+
+"My dear fellow, what is it?"
+
+"Ah, I see that you guess; it is a letter from your mother."
+
+"From my mother?"
+
+During all the time since her telegram they had not exchanged a
+word.
+
+"A very long letter, but she makes a condition."
+
+"Hum, hum! a condition?"
+
+"Yes, but do not be angry; it is not a hard one: it is only that
+you are to go away from the town, wherever you like, so long as
+you can be quiet, and then you are to read it."
+
+"You know the contents?"
+
+"I know the contents, I will go bail for it."
+
+What he meant, or why he was so perturbed by it, Rafael did not
+understand, but it infected him; if he had had the money, and if
+on that day he had been disengaged, he would have gone at once.
+But he had not the money, not more than he wanted for the fete
+that evening. He had the tickets for it in his pocket at that
+moment. He had promised Angelika that he would go there with her,
+and he would keep his promise, for it had been given after a great
+reconciliation scene. A white silk dress had been the olive branch
+of these last peaceful days. She therefore looked very handsome
+that evening as she walked into the great hall of the Lodge, with
+Rafael beside her tall and stately. She was in excellent spirits.
+Her quiet eyes had a haughty expression as she turned her steps
+with confident superiority towards those whom she wished to
+please, or those whom she hoped to annoy.
+
+HE did not feel confident. He did not like showing himself in
+public with her, and lately it had precisely been in public places
+that she had chosen to make scenes; besides which, he felt nervous
+as to what his mother could wish to say to him.
+
+A short time before he came to the fete, he had tried, in two
+quarters, to borrow money, and each time had received only
+excuses. This had greatly mortified him. His disturbed state of
+mind, as is so often the case with nervous people, made him
+excited and boisterous, nay, even made him more than usually
+jovial. And as though a little of the old happiness were actually
+to come to him that evening, he met his friend and relative Hans
+Ravn, him and his young Bavarian wife, who had just come to the
+town. All three were delighted to meet.
+
+"Do you remember," said Hans Ravn, "how often you have lent me
+money, Rafael?" and he drew him on one side. "Now I am at the top
+of the tree, now I am married to an heiress, and the most charming
+girl too; ah, you must know her better."
+
+"She is pretty as well," said Rafael.
+
+"And pretty as well--and good tempered; in fact, you see before
+you the happiest man in Norway."
+
+Rafael's eyes filled. Ravn put his hands on to his friend's
+shoulders.
+
+"Are you not happy, Rafael?"
+
+"Not quite so happy as you, Hans--"
+
+He left him to speak to some one else, then returned again.
+
+"You say, Hans, that I have often lent you money."
+
+"Are you pressed? Do you want some, Rafael? My dear fellow, how
+much?"
+
+"Can you spare me two thousand kroner?"
+
+"Here they are."
+
+"No, no; not in here, come outside."
+
+"Yes, let us go and have some champagne to celebrate our meeting.
+No, not our wives," he added, as Rafael looked towards where they
+stood talking.
+
+"Not our wives," laughed Rafael. He understood the intention, and
+now he wished to enjoy his freedom thoroughly. They came in again
+merrier and more boisterous than before.
+
+Rafael asked Hans Ravn's young wife to dance. Her personal
+attractions, natural gaiety, and especially her admiration of her
+husband's relations, took him by storm. They danced twice, and
+laughed and talked together afterwards.
+
+Later in the evening the two friends rejoined their wives, so that
+they might all sit together at supper. Even from a distance Rafael
+could see by Angelika's face that a storm was brewing. He grew
+angry at once. He had never been blamed more groundlessly. He was
+never to have any unalloyed pleasure, then! But he confined
+himself to whispering, "Try to behave like other people." But that
+was exactly what she did not mean to do. He had left her alone,
+every one had seen it. She would have her revenge. She could not
+endure Hans Ravn's merriment, still less that of his wife, so she
+contradicted rudely once, twice, three times, while Hans Ravn's
+face grew more and more puzzled. The storm might have blown over,
+for Rafael parried each thrust, even turning them into jokes, so
+that the party grew merrier, and no feelings were hurt; but on
+this she tried fresh tactics. As has been already said, she could
+make a number of annoying gestures, signs and movements which only
+he understood. In this way she showed him her contempt for
+everything which every one, and especially he himself, said. He
+could not help looking towards her, and saw this every time he did
+so, until under the cover of the laughter of the others, with as
+much fervour and affection as can be put into such a word, "You
+jade!" he said.
+
+"Jade; was ist das?" asked the bright-eyed foreigner.
+
+This made the whole affair supremely ridiculous. Angelika herself
+laughed, and all hoped that the cloud had been finally dispersed.
+No!--as though Satan himself had been at table with them, she
+would not give in.
+
+The conversation again grew lively, and when it was at its height,
+she pooh-poohed all their jokes so unmistakably that they were
+completely puzzled. Rafael gave her a furious look, and then she
+jeered at him, "You boy!" she said. After this Rafael answered her
+angrily, and let nothing pass without retaliation, rough, savage
+retaliation; he was worse than she was.
+
+"But God bless me!" said good-natured Hans Ravn at length, "how
+you are altered, Rafael!" His genial kindly eyes gazed at him with
+a look which Rafael never forget.
+
+"Ja, ich kan es nicht mehr aushalten" said the young Fru Ravn,
+with tears in her eyes. She rose, her husband hurried to her, and
+they left together. Rafael sat down again, with Angelika. Those
+near them looked towards them and whispered together. Angry and
+ashamed, he looked across at Angelika, who laughed. Everything
+seemed to turn red before his eyes--he rose; he had a wild desire
+to kill her there, before every one. Yes! the temptation
+overpowered him to such an extent that he thought that people must
+notice it.
+
+"Are you not well, Kaas?" he heard some one beside him say.
+
+He could not remember afterwards what he answered, or how he got
+away; but still, in the street, he dwelt with ecstasy on the
+thought of killing her, of again seeing her face turn black, her
+arms fall powerless, her eyes open wide with terror; for that was
+what would happen some day. He should end his life in a felon's
+cell. That was as certainly a part of his destiny as had been the
+possession of talents which he had allowed to become useless.
+
+A quarter of an hour later he was at the observatory: he scanned
+the heavens, but no stars were visible. He felt that he was
+perspiring, that his clothes clung to him, yet he was ice-cold.
+That is the future that awaits you, he thought; it runs ice-cold
+through your limbs.
+
+Then it was that a new and, until then, unused power, which
+underlay all else, broke forth and took the command.
+
+"You shall never return home to her, that is all past now, boy; I
+will not permit it any longer."
+
+What was it? What voice was that? It really sounded as though
+outside himself. Was it his father's? It was a man's voice. It
+made him clear and calm. He turned round, he went straight to the
+nearest hotel, without further thought, without anxiety. Something
+new was about to begin.
+
+He slept for three hours undisturbed by dreams; it was the first
+night for a long time that he had done so.
+
+The following morning he sat in the little pavilion at the station
+at Eidsvold with his mother's packet of letters laid open before
+him. It consisted of a quantity of papers which he had read
+through.
+
+The expanse of Lake Mjosen lay cold and grey beneath the autumn
+mist, which still shrouded the hillsides. The sound of hammers
+from the workshops to the right mingled with the rumble of wheels
+on the bridge; the whistle of an engine, the rattle of crockery
+from the restaurant; sights and sounds seethed round him like
+water boiling round an egg.
+
+As soon as his mother had felt sure that Angelika was not really
+enceinte she had busied herself in collecting all the information
+about her which it was possible to obtain.
+
+By the untiring efforts of her ubiquitous relations she had
+succeeded to such an extent and in such detail as no examining
+magistrate could have accomplished. And there now lay before him
+letters, explanations, evidence, which the deponent was ready to
+swear to, besides letters from Angelika herself: imprudent letters
+which this impulsive creature could perpetrate in the midst of her
+schemes; or deeply calculated letters, which directly contradicted
+others which had been written at a different period, based on
+different calculations. These documents were only the
+accompaniment of a clear summing-up by his mother. It was
+therefore she who had guided the investigations of the others and
+made a digest of their discoveries. With mathematical precision
+was here laid down both what was certain and what, though not
+certain, was probable. No comment was added, not a word addressed
+to himself.
+
+That portion of the disclosures which related to Angelika's past
+does not concern us. That which had reference to her relations
+with Rafael began by proving that the anonymous letters, which had
+been the means of preventing his engagement with Helene, had been
+written by Angelika. This revelation and that which preceded it,
+give an idea of the overwhelming humiliation under which Rafael
+now suffered. What was he that he could be duped and mastered like
+a captured animal; that what was best and what was worst in him
+could lead him so far astray? Like a weak fool he was swept along;
+he had neither seen nor heard nor thought before he was dragged
+away from everything that was his or that was dear to him.
+
+As he sat there, the perspiration poured from him as it had done
+the night before, and again he felt a deadly chill. He therefore
+went up to his room with the papers, which he locked up in his
+trunk, and then set off at a run along the road. The passers-by
+turned to stare after the tall fellow.
+
+As he ran he repeated to himself, "Who are you, my lad? who are
+you?" Then he asked the hills the same question, and then the
+trees as well. He even asked the fog, which was now rolling off,
+"Who am I? can you answer me that?"
+
+The close-cropped half-withered turf mocked him--the cleared
+potato patches, the bare fields, the fallen leaves.
+
+"That which you are you will never be; that which you can you will
+never do; that which you ought to become you will never attain to!
+As you, so your mother before you. She turned aside--and your
+father too--into absolute folly; perhaps their fathers before
+them! This is a branch of a great family who never attained to
+what they were intended for."
+
+"Something different has misled each one of us, but we have all
+been misled. Why is that so? We have greater aims than many
+others, but the others drove along the beaten highway right
+through the gates of Fortune's house. We stray away from the
+highway and into the wood. See! am I not there myself now? Away
+from the highway and into the wood, as though I were led by an
+inward law. Into the wood." He looked round among the mountain-
+ashes, the birches, and other leafy trees in autumn tints. They
+stood all round, dripping, as though they wept for his sorrow.
+"Yes, yes; they will see me hang here, like Absalom by his long
+hair." He had not recalled this old picture a moment before he
+stopped, as though seized by a strong hand.
+
+He must not fly from this, but try to fathom it. The more he
+thought of it, the clearer it became: ABSALOM'S HISTORY WAS HIS
+OWN. He began with rebellion. Naturally rebellion is the first
+step in a course which leads one from the highway--leads to
+passion and its consequences. That was clear enough.
+
+Thus passion overpowered strength of purpose; thus chance
+circumstances sapped the foundations--But David rebelled as well.
+Why, then, was not David hung up by his hair? It was quite as long
+as Absalom's. Yes, David was within an ace of it, right up to his
+old age. But the innate strength in David was too great, his
+energy was always too powerful: it conquered the powers of
+rebellion. They could not drag him far away into passionate
+wanderings; they remained only holiday flights in his life and
+added poetry to it. They did not move his strength of purpose. Ah,
+ha! It was so strong in David that he absorbed them and fed on
+them; and yet he was within an ace--very often. See! That is what
+I, miserable contemptible wretch, cannot do. So I must hang! Very
+soon the man with the spear will be after me.
+
+Rafael now set off running; probably he wished to escape the man
+with the spear. He now entered the thickest part of the wood, a
+narrow valley between two high hills which overshadowed it. Oh,
+how thirsty he was, so fearfully thirsty! He stood still and
+wondered whether he could get anything to drink. Yes, he could
+hear the murmur of a brook. He ran farther down towards it. Close
+by was an opening in the wood, and as he went towards the stream
+he was arrested by something there: the sun had burst forth and
+lighted up the tree-tops, throwing deep shadows below. Did he see
+anything? Yes; it seemed to him that he saw himself, not
+absolutely in the opening, but to one side, in the shadow, under a
+tree; he hung there by his hair. He hung there and swung, a man,
+but in the velvet jacket of his childhood and the tight-fitting
+trousers: he swung suspended by his tangled red hair. And farther
+away he distinctly saw another figure: it was his mother, stiff
+and stately, who was turning round as if to the sound of music.
+And, God preserve him! still farther away, broad and heavy, hung
+his father, by the few thin hairs on his neck, with wretched
+distorted face as on his death-bed. In other respects those two
+were not great sinners. They were old; but his sins were great,
+for he was young, and therefore nothing had ever prospered with
+him, not even in his childhood. There had always been something
+which had caused him to be misunderstood or which had frightened
+him or made him constantly constrained and uncertain of himself.
+Never had he been able to keep to the main point, and thus to be
+in quiet natural peace. With only one exception--his meeting with
+Helene.
+
+It seemed to him that he was sitting in the boat with her out in
+the bay. The sky was bright, there was melody in the woods. Now he
+was up on the hill with her, among the saplings, and she was
+explaining to him that it depended on her care whether they throve
+or not.
+
+He went to the brook to drink; he lay down over the water. He was
+thus able to see his own face. How could that happen? Why, there
+was sunshine overhead. He was able to see his own face. Great
+heavens! how like his father he had become. In the last year he
+had grown very like his father--people had said so. He well
+remembered his mother's manner when she noticed it. But, good God!
+were those grey hairs? Yes, in quantities, so that his hair was no
+longer red but grey. No one had told him of it. Had he advanced so
+far, been so little prepared for it, that Hans Ravn's remark, "How
+you are altered, Rafael!" had frightened him?
+
+He had certainly given up observing himself, in this coarse life
+of quarrels. In it, certainly, neither words nor deeds were
+weighed, and hence this hunted feeling. It was only natural that
+he had ceased to observe. If the brook had been a little deeper,
+he would have let himself be engulfed in it. He got up, and went
+on again, quicker and quicker: sometimes he saw one person,
+sometimes another, hanging in the woods.
+
+He dare not turn round. Was it so very wonderful that others
+besides himself and his family had turned from the beaten track,
+and peopled the byways and the boughs in the wood? He had been
+unjust towards himself and his parents; they were not alone, they
+were in only too large a company. What will unjust people say, but
+that the very thing which requires strength does not receive it,
+but half of it comes to nothing, more than half of the powers are
+wasted. Here, in these strips of woodland which run up the hills
+side by side, like organ-pipes, Henrik Vergeland had also roamed:
+within an ace, with him too, within an ace! Wonderful how the
+ravens gather together here, where so many people are hanging. Ha!
+ha! He must write this to his mother! It was something to write
+about to her, who had left him, who deserted him when he was the
+most unhappy, because all that she cared for was to keep her
+sacred person inviolate, to maintain her obstinate opinion, to
+gratify her pique--Oh! what long hair!--How fast his mother was
+held! She had not cut her hair enough then. But now she should
+have her deserts. Everything from as far back as he could remember
+should be recalled, for once in a way he would show her herself;
+now he had both the power and the right. His powers of discovery
+had been long hidden under the suffocating sawdust of the daily
+and nightly sawing; but now it was awake, and his mother should
+feel it.
+
+People noticed the tall man break out of the wood, jump over
+hedges and ditches, and make his way straight up the hill. At the
+very top he would write to his mother!--
+
+He did not return to the hotel till dark. He was wet, dirty, and
+frightfully exhausted. He was as hungry as a wolf, he said, but he
+hardly ate anything; on the other hand, he was consumed with
+thirst. On leaving the table he said that he wished to stay there
+a few days to sleep. They thought that he was joking, but he slept
+uninterruptedly until the afternoon of the next day. He was then
+awakened, ate a little and drank a great deal, for he had
+perspired profusely; after which he fell asleep again. He passed
+the next twenty-four hours in much the same way.
+
+When he awoke the following morning he found himself alone.
+
+Had not a doctor been there, and had he not said that it was a
+good thing for him to sleep? It seemed to him that he had heard a
+buzz of voices; but he was sure that he was well now, only
+furiously hungry and thirsty, and when he raised himself he felt
+giddy. But that passed off by degrees, when he had eaten some of
+the food which had been left there. He drank out of the water-jug-
+-the carafe was empty--and walked once or twice up and down before
+the open window. It was decidedly cold, so he shut it. Just then
+he remembered that he had written a frightful letter to his
+mother!
+
+How long ago was it? Had he not slept a long time? Had he not
+turned grey? He went to the looking-glass, but forgot the grey
+hair at the sight of himself. He was thin, lank, and dirty.--The
+letter! the letter! It will kill my mother! There had already been
+misfortunes enough, more must not follow.
+
+He dressed himself quickly, as if by hurrying he could overtake
+the letter. He looked at the clock--it had stopped. Suppose the
+train were in! He must go by it, and from the train straight to
+the steamer, and home, home to Hellebergene! But he must send a
+telegram to his mother at once. He wrote it--"Never mind the
+letter, mother. I am coming this evening and will never leave you
+again."
+
+So now he had only to put on a clean collar, now his watch--it
+certainly was morning--now to pack, go down and pay the bill, have
+something to eat, take his ticket, send the telegram; but first--
+no, it must all be done together, for the train WAS there; it had
+only a few minutes more to wait; he could only just catch it. The
+telegram was given to some one else to send off.
+
+But he had hardly got into the carriage, where he was alone, than
+the thought of the letter tortured him, till he could not sit
+still. This dreadful analysis of his mother, strophe after
+strophe, it rose before him, it again drove him into the state of
+mind in which he had been among the hills and woods of Eidsvold.
+Beyond the tunnel the character of the scenery was the same.--Good
+God! that dreadful letter was never absent from his thoughts,
+otherwise he would not suffer so terribly. What right had he to
+reproach his mother, or any one, because a mere chance should have
+become of importance in their lives?
+
+Would the telegram arrive in time to save her from despair, and
+yet not frighten her from home because he was coming? To think
+that he could write in such a way to her, who had but lived to
+collect the information which would free him! His ingratitude must
+appear too monstrous to her. The extreme reserve which she was
+unable to break through might well lead to catastrophes. What
+might not she have determined on when she received this violent
+attack by way of thanks? Perhaps she would think that life was no
+longer worth living, she who thought it so easy to die. He
+shuddered.
+
+But she will do nothing hastily, she will weigh everything first.
+Her roots go deep. When she appears to have acted on impulse, it
+is because she has had previous knowledge. But she has no previous
+knowledge here; surely here she will deliberate.
+
+He pictured her as, wrapped in her shawl, she wandered about in
+dire distress--or with intent gaze reviewing her life and his own,
+until both appeared to her to have been hopelessly wasted--or
+pondering where she could best hide herself so that she should
+suffer no more.
+
+How he loved her! All that had happened had drawn a veil over his
+eyes, which was now removed.
+
+ Now he was on board the steamer which was bearing him home. The
+weather had become mild and summerlike; it had been raining, but
+towards evening it began to clear. He would get to Hellebergene in
+fine weather, and by moonlight. It grew colder; he spoke to no
+one, nor had he eyes for anything about him.
+
+The image of his mother, wrapped in her long shawl--that was all
+the company he had. Only his mother! No one but his mother!
+Suppose the telegram had but frightened her the more--that to see
+HIM now appeared the worst that could happen. To read such a
+crushing doom for her whole life, and that from him! She was not
+so constituted that it could be cancelled by his asking
+forgiveness and returning to her. On the contrary, it would
+precipitate the worst, it must do so.
+
+The violent perspiration began again; he had to put on more wraps.
+His terror took possession of him: he was forced to contemplate
+the most awful possibilities--to picture to himself what death his
+mother would choose!
+
+He sprang to his feet and paced up and down. He longed to throw
+himself into somebody's arms, to cry aloud. But he knew well that
+he must not let such words escape him.--He HAD to picture her as
+she handled the guns, until she relinquished the idea of using any
+of them. Then he imagined her recalling the deepest hiding-places
+in the woods--where were they all?
+
+HE recalled them, one after another. No, not in any of THOSE, for
+she wished to hide herself where she would never be found! There
+was the cement-bed; it went sheer down there, and the water was
+deep!--He clung to the rigging to prevent himself from falling. He
+prayed to be released from these terrors. But he saw her floating
+there, rocked by the rippling water. Was it the face which was
+uppermost, or was it the body, which for a while floated higher
+than the face?
+
+His thoughts were partially diverted from this by people coming up
+to ask him if he were ill. He got something warm and strong to
+drink, and now the steamer approached the part of the coast with
+which he was familiar. They passed the opening into Hellebergene,
+for one has to go first to the town, and thence in a boat. It now
+became the question, whether a boat had been sent for him. In that
+case his mother was alive, and would welcome him. But if there was
+no boat, then a message from the gulf had been sent instead!
+
+And there was no boat!--
+
+For a moment his senses failed him; only confused sounds fell on
+his ear. But then he seemed to emerge from a dark passage. He must
+get to Hellebergene! He must see what had happened; be would go
+and search!
+
+By this time it was growing dark. He went on shore and looked
+round for a boat as though half asleep. He could hardly speak, but
+he did not give in till he got the men together and hired the
+boat. He took the helm himself, and bade them row with all their
+might. He knew every peak in the grey twilight. They might depend
+on him, and row on without looking round. Soon they had passed the
+high land and were in among the islands. This time they did not
+come out to meet him; they all seemed gathered there to repel him.
+No boat had been sent; there was, therefore, nothing more for him
+to do here. No boat had been sent, because he had forfeited his
+place here. Like savage beasts, with bristles erect, the peaks and
+islands arrayed themselves against him. "Row on, my lads," he
+cried, for now arose again in him that dormant power which only
+manifested itself in his utmost need.
+
+"How is it with you, my boy? I am growing weary. Courage, now, and
+forward!"
+
+Again that voice outside himself--a man's voice. Was it his
+father's?
+
+Whether or not it were his father's voice, here before his
+father's home he would struggle against Fate.
+
+In man's direst necessity, what he has failed in and what he can
+do seem to encounter each other. And thus, just as the boat had
+cleared the point and the islands and was turning into the bay, he
+raised himself to his full height, and the boatmen looked at him
+in astonishment. He still grasped the rudder-lines, and looked as
+though he were about to meet an enemy. Or did he hear anything?
+was it the sound of oars?
+
+Yes, they heard them now as well. From the strait near the inlet a
+boat was approaching them. She loomed large on the smooth surface
+of the water and shot swiftly along.
+
+"Is that a boat from Hellebergene?" shouted Rafael. His voice
+shook.
+
+"Yes," came a voice out of the darkness, and he recognised the
+bailiff's voice. "Is it Rafael?"
+
+"Yes. Why did you not come before?"
+
+"The telegram has only just arrived."
+
+He sat down. He did not speak. He became suddenly incapable of
+uttering a word.
+
+The other boat turned and followed them. Rafael nearly ran his
+boat on shore; he forgot that he was steering. Very soon they
+cleared the narrow passage which led into the inner bay, and
+rounded the last headland, and there!--there lay Hellebergene
+before them in a blaze of light! From cellar to attic, in every
+single window, it glowed, it streamed with light, and at that
+moment another light blazed out from the cairn on the hill-top.
+
+It was thus that his mother greeted him. He sobbed; and the
+boatmen heard him, and at the same time noticed that it had grown
+suddenly light. They turned round, and were so engrossed in the
+spectacle that they forgot to row.
+
+"Come! you must let me get on," was all that he could manage to
+say.
+
+His sufferings were forgotten as he leapt from the boat. Nor did
+it disturb him that he did not meet his mother at the landing-
+place, or near the house, nor see her on the terrace. He simply
+rushed up the stairs and opened the door.
+
+The candles in the windows gave but little light within. Indeed,
+something had been put in the windows for them to stand on, so
+that the interior was half in shadow. But he had come in from the
+semi-darkness. He looked round for her, but he heard some one
+crying at the other end of the room. There she sat, crouched in
+the farthest corner of the sofa, with her feet drawn up under her,
+as in old days when she was frightened. She did not stretch out
+her arms; she remained huddled together. But he bent over her,
+knelt down, laid his face on hers, wept with her. She had grown
+fragile, thin, haggard, ah! as though she could be blown away. She
+let him take her in his arms like a child and clasp her to his
+breast; let him caress and kiss her. Ah, how ethereal she had
+become! And those eyes, which at last he saw, now looked tearfully
+out from their large orbits, but more innocently than a bird from
+its nest. Over her broad forehead she had wound a large silk
+handkerchief in turban fashion. It hung down behind. She wished to
+conceal the thinness of her hair. He smiled to recognise her again
+in this. More spiritualised, more ethereal in her beauty, her
+innermost aspirations shone forth without effort. Her thin hands
+caressed his hair, and now she gazed into his eyes.
+
+"Rafael, my Rafael!" She twined her arms round him and murmured
+welcome. But soon she raised her head and resumed a sitting
+posture. She wished to speak. He was beforehand with her.
+
+"Forgive the letter," he whispered with beseeching eyes and voice,
+and hands upraised.
+
+"I saw the distress of your soul," was the whispered answer, for
+it could not be spoken aloud. "And there was nothing to forgive,"
+she added. She had laid her face against his again. "And it was
+quite true, Rafael," she murmured.
+
+She must have passed through terrible days and nights here, he
+thought, before she could say that.
+
+"Mother, mother! what a fearful time!"
+
+Her little hand sought his: it was cold; it lay in his like an egg
+in a deserted nest. He warmed it and took the other as well.
+
+"Was not the illumination splendid?" she said. And now her voice
+was like a child's.
+
+He moved the screen which obstructed the light: he must see her
+better. He thought, when he saw the look of happiness in her face,
+if life looks so beautiful to her still, we shall have a long time
+together.
+
+"If you had told me all that about Absalom, the picture which you
+made when you were told the story of David, Rafael; if you had
+only told me that before!" She paused, and her lips quivered.
+
+"How could I tell it to you, mother, when I did not understand it
+myself?"
+
+"The illumination--that must signify that I, too, understand. It
+ought to light you forward; do you not think so?"
+
+
+
+
+A PAINFUL MEMORY FROM CHILDHOOD
+
+I must have been somewhere about seven years old, when one Sunday
+afternoon a rumour reached the parsonage that, on that same day,
+two men, rowing past the Buggestrand in Eidsfjord, had discovered
+a woman who had fallen over a cliff, and had remained half lying,
+half hanging, close to the water's edge.
+
+Before moving her, they tried to find out from her who had thrown
+her over.
+
+It was thirty-five miles by water to the doctor's, and then an
+order for admission to the hospital had also to be procured. She
+had lain twenty-four hours before help reached her, and shortly
+afterwards she died. Before she breathed her last, she said it was
+Peer Hagbo who had done it. "But," she added, "they mustn't do him
+any harm."
+
+Everybody knew that there had been an attachment between the girl,
+who was in service at Hagbo's, and the son of the house, and the
+shrewd ones instantly guessed why he wanted to get her out of the
+way.
+
+I remember clearly the arrival of the news. It was, as I have
+said, on a Sunday afternoon, her death having occurred on the
+morning of the same day.
+
+It was in the very middle of summer, when the whole place was
+flooded with sunshine and gladness. I remember how the light
+faded, faces turned to stone, the fjord grew dim, and village and
+forest shrank away into shadow. I remember that even the next day
+I felt as though a blow had been dealt to ordinary existence. I
+knew that I need not go to school. Men knocked off work, leaving
+everything just as it was, and sat down with idle hands. The women
+especially were paralysed: it was evident they felt themselves
+threatened, they even said as much. When strangers came to the
+parsonage their bearing and expression showed that the murder lay
+heavy on their minds, and they read the same story in us. We took
+each other's hands with a sense of remoteness. The murder was the
+only thing that was present with us. Whatever we talked of we
+seemed to hear of the murder in voice and word. The last
+consciousness at night and the first in the morning was that
+everything was unsettled, and that the joy of life was suddenly
+arrested, like the hands on a dial at a certain hour.
+
+But by degrees the murder fell into its proper place among other
+interests; curiosity and gossip had made it commonplace. It was
+taken up, turned over, considered, picked at and pulled about,
+till it became simply "the last new thing." Soon we knew every
+detail of the relation between the murdered and the murderer. We
+knew who it was that Peer's mother had wanted him to marry; we
+knew the Hagbo family in and out, and their history for
+generations past.
+
+When the magistrate came to the parsonage to institute the
+preliminary inquiry, the murder was merely an inexhaustible theme
+of conversation. But the next day when the bailiff and some other
+men appeared with the murderer, a new feeling took possession of
+me, a feeling of which I could not have imagined myself capable--
+an overpowering compassion. A young good-looking lad, well grown,
+slightly built, rather small than otherwise, with dark not very
+thick hair, with appealing eyes which were now downcast, with a
+clear voice, and about his whole personality a certain charm,
+almost refinement; a creature to associate with life, not death,
+with gladness, with gaiety. I was more sorry for him than I can
+say. The bailiff and the other people spoke kindly to him too, so
+they must have felt the same. Only the peppery little clerk came
+out with some hard words, but the accused stood cap in hand and
+made no answer.
+
+He paced up and down the yard in his shirt sleeves--the day was
+very warm--with a flat cloth cap over his close-cut hair, and his
+hands in his trousers pockets, or toying restlessly with a piece
+of straw. The parsonage dog had found companions, and the youth
+followed the dog's frolic with his eyes, and gazed at the chickens
+and at us children as though he longed to be one of us. The girl's
+words, "But don't do him any harm," rang in my ears unceasingly--
+whether he walked about or stood still or sat down. I knew that he
+would certainly be beheaded, and, believing that it must be soon,
+I was filled with horror at the thought of his saying to himself,
+In a month I shall die--and then in a week--in a day--an hour...
+it must be utterly unendurable. I slipped behind him to see his
+neck, and just at that moment he lifted his hand up to it, a
+little brown hand; and I could not get rid of the thought that
+perhaps his fingers would come in the way when the axe was
+falling.
+
+He and the warders were asked to come in and dine. I felt I must
+see if it were really possible for him to eat. Yes, he ate and
+chatted just like the rest, and for a time I forgot my terror. But
+no sooner was I outside again and alone than I fell to thinking of
+it with might and main, and it seemed to me very hard that her
+words, "But you mustn't do him any harm," should be so utterly
+disregarded. I felt I must go in and say as much to father. But
+he, slow and serious, and the clerk, little and dapper, were
+walking up and down the room deep in conversation, far, far above
+all my misery. I slipped out again, and stroked the coat which
+Peer had taken off.
+
+The inquiry was held in my schoolroom. My master acted as
+secretary to the court, and I got leave to sit there and listen.
+For the matter of that, the clerk spoke in so loud a voice that it
+could be heard through the open window by every one in the place.
+The unfortunate youth was called upon to account for the entire
+day on which the murder had been committed--for every hour of that
+Sunday. He denied that he had killed her--denied it with the
+utmost emphasis: "It was not he who had done it." The magistrate's
+examination was both acutely and kindly conducted; Peer was moved
+to tears, but no confession could be drawn from him.
+
+"This will be a long business, madam," said the magistrate to my
+mother when the first day's inquiry was over. But later in the
+evening Peer's sister came to the parsonage and remained with him
+all through the night. They were heard whispering and crying
+unceasingly. In the morning Peer was pale and silent; before the
+court he took all the blame upon himself.
+
+The way it had happened, he explained, was that he had been her
+lover, and that his mother had strongly disapproved of the
+connection. So one Sunday as the girl, prayer-book in hand, was
+going to church, he met her in the wood. They sat down, and he
+asked if she intended to declare him the father of the child she
+was about to bear; for it was in this time of sore necessity that
+she was going to seek consolation in the church. She replied that
+she could accuse no one else. He spoke of the shame it would bring
+on him, and how annoyed his mother already was. Yes, yes, she knew
+that too well. His mother was very angry with her; and she thought
+it strange of Peer that he didn't stand up for her; he knew best
+whose fault it was that all this had happened. But Peer hinted
+that she had been compliant to others as well as to himself, and
+therefore he would not submit to being given out as the child's
+father. He tried to make her angry, but did not succeed, she was
+so gentle. He had an axe lying concealed in the heather near where
+he sat. He took it and struck her on the head from behind. She did
+not lose consciousness at once, but tried to defend herself while
+she begged for her life. He could give no clear account of what
+happened afterwards. It seemed almost as though he himself had
+lost consciousness. As to the other events, he accepted the
+account of them which had been given in the evidence against him.
+
+His sister waited at the parsonage until he came from the
+examination, worn out and with eyes red with weeping. Once more
+they went aside and whispered. I remember nothing more of her than
+that she held her head down and wept a great deal.
+
+ It was in the winter that he was to be executed. The announcement
+was made at such short notice that every one in the house had to
+bestir himself--father was to deliver an exhortation at the place
+of execution, and the Dean, whose parishioner the condemned man
+was, together with the bailiff, had arranged to come to us the day
+before.
+
+Peer and his warders and a friend, his instructor during the time
+of his imprisonment, schoolmaster Jakobsen, were to sleep down in
+the schoolhouse, which was part of the farm property belonging to
+the old parsonage. Meals were to be carried from our house to the
+prisoner and Jakobsen.
+
+I remember that they came in the morning in two boat-loads from
+Molde: the Dean, the bailiff, the military escort, and the
+condemned man. But I had to sit in the old schoolhouse, and not
+even later in the day was I allowed to go down to where they were.
+
+This prohibition made the whole proceeding the more mysterious. It
+grew dark early. The sea ran black against a whitish and in some
+places bare-swept beach. The ragged clouds chased each other
+across the sky. We were afraid a storm was coming on. Then one of
+the parsonage chimneys caught on fire, and most of the soldiers
+came rushing up to offer help. The great fire-ladder was brought
+from under the storehouse. It was unusually heavy and clumsy, so
+it was difficult to get it raised, till father broke into the
+midst of the crowd, ordered them all to stand back, and set it up
+by himself. This is still remembered in the parish; and also that
+the bailiff, an active little fellow, took a bucket in each hand
+and went up the ladder till he reached the turf roof. The black
+fjord, the hurrying clouds, the menace of the coming day, the
+blaze of the fire, the bustle and din...and then the silence
+afterwards! People whispered as they moved about the rooms and out
+in the yard, whence they looked down upon the schoolhouse-prison
+where the steady light burned.
+
+Schoolmaster Jacobsen was sitting there now with his friend. They
+were singing and praying together, I heard from those who had been
+down in that direction. Peer's family came in the evening in a
+boat, went up to see him, and took leave of him. I heard how
+dauntless he was in his confidence that the next day he would be
+with God, and how beautifully he talked to his people, and
+especially how he begged them to take an affectionate greeting to
+his mother, and be good to her as long as she lived. Some said she
+had come in the boat with the rest, but would not go up to see
+him. That was not true, any more than that some of them were at
+the execution the next day, which was also reported.
+
+I wakened the next morning under a weight of apprehension. The
+weather had changed and was fair now, but it felt oppressive
+nevertheless. No one spoke loud, and people said as little as
+possible. I was to be allowed to go with the rest and look on; so
+I made haste to find my tutor, whom I had been told not to leave.
+The two clergymen came out in their cassocks. We went down to the
+landing-place and rowed the first part of the way. The condemned
+man and his escort had gone on before, and waited at the place
+where we disembarked, in order to walk the latter part of the way
+to the place of execution, a kilometer or so distant. The
+execution had to take place at a cross-roads, and there was only
+one in the neighbourhood--namely, at Ejdsvaag, nearly seven miles
+away from where the murder was committed. The bailiff headed the
+procession, then came the soldiers, then the condemned man, with
+the Dean on one side and my father on the other, then Jacobsen and
+my tutor, with me between them, then some more people, followed by
+more soldiers. We walked cautiously along the slippery road. The
+clergyman talked constantly to the condemned man, who was now very
+pale. His eyes had grown gentle and weary and he said very little.
+My mother, who had been very kind to him, and whom he had thanked
+for all she had done, had sent him a bottle of wine to keep up his
+strength. The first time that my tutor offered him some, he looked
+at the clergyman as though asking if there were anything sinful in
+accepting it. My father quoted St. Paul's advice to Timothy, and
+instantly he drank off a long draught.
+
+By the wayside stood people curious to see him, and they joined
+the procession as it passed along. Among them were some of his
+comrades, to whom he sorrowfully nodded. Once or twice he lifted
+his cap, the same flat one I had seen him in the first time. It
+was evident that his comrades had a regard for him; and I saw,
+too, some young women who were crying, and made no attempt to
+conceal it. He walked along with his hands clasped at his breast,
+probably praying.
+
+We were all startled by the captain's loud and commonplace word of
+command, "Attention!" as we reached the appointed place. A body of
+soldiers stood drawn up in a hollow square, which closed in after
+admitting the bailiff, the clergyman, the condemned man, and a few
+besides, among whom was myself. A great silent crowd stood round,
+and over their heads one saw the mounted figure of the sheriff in
+his cocked hat. When the soldiers who came with us, having carried
+out various sharp words of command, had taken their places in the
+square, the further proceedings began by the sheriff's reading
+aloud the death sentence and the royal order for the execution.
+
+The sheriff stationed himself directly in front of the place where
+some planed boards were laid over the grave. At one end of it
+stood the block. On the other side of the grave a platform had
+been erected, from which the Dean was to speak. Peer Hagbo knelt
+below on the step, with his face buried in his hands, close to the
+feet of his spiritual adviser. The Dean was of Danish birth, one
+of the many who, at the time of the separation, had chosen to make
+their home in Norway. His addresses were beautiful to read, but
+one couldn't always hear him, and least of all when he was moved,
+as was frequently the case. He shouted the first words very loud;
+then his head sank down between his shoulders, and he shook it
+without a pause while he closed his eyes and uttered some
+smothered sounds, catching his breath between them. The points of
+his tall shirt-collar, which reached to the middle of his ears (I
+have never since seen the like), stuck up on each side of the bare
+cropped head with the two double chins underneath, and the whole
+was framed between his shoulders, which, by long practice, he
+could raise much higher than other men. Those who did not know
+him--for to know him was to love him--could hardly keep from
+laughing. His speech was neither heard nor understood, but it was
+short. His emotion forced him to break it off suddenly. One thing
+alone we all understood: that he loved the pale young man whom he
+had prepared for death, and that he wished that all of us might go
+to our God as happy and confident as he who was to die to-day.
+When he stepped down they embraced each other for the last time.
+Peer gave his hand to my father and to a number besides, and then
+placed himself by his friend Jakobsen. The latter knew what this
+meant. He took off a kerchief and bound Peer's eyes, while we saw
+him whisper something to him and receive a whispered answer. Then
+a man came forward to bind Peer's hands behind his back, but he
+begged to be left free, and his prayer was granted. Then Jakobsen
+took him by the hand and led him forward. At the place where Peer
+was to kneel Jakobsen stopped short, and Peer slowly bent his
+knees. Jakobsen bent Peer's head down until it rested on the
+block; then he drew back and folded his hands. All this I saw, and
+also that a tall man came and took hold of Peer's neck, while a
+smaller man drew forth from a couple of folded towels a shining
+axe with a remarkably broad thin blade. It was then I turned away.
+I heard the captain's horrible "Present arms"; I heard some one
+praying "Our Father"--perhaps it was Peer himself--then a blow
+that sounded exactly as if it went into a great cabbage. At once I
+looked round again, and saw one leg kicking out, and a yard or two
+beyond the body lay the head, the mouth gasping and gasping as if
+for air.
+
+The executioner's assistant sprang forward and took hold of it by
+the ends of the handkerchief that had bandaged the eyes, and threw
+it into the coffin beside the body, where it fell with a dull
+sound. The boards were laid over the coffined remains, and the
+whole hastily lifted up and lowered into the grave.
+
+Then my father got up on the platform. Every one could understand
+what HE said, and his powerful voice was heard to such a distance
+that even now it is remembered in the district. Following up the
+thunderous admonition of the execution itself, he warned the young
+against the vices which prevailed in the parish--against
+drunkenness, fighting, unchastity, and other misconduct. They must
+have liked the discourse very much, for it was stolen out of the
+pocket of his gown on the way home.
+
+As for me, I left the place as sick at heart, as overwhelmed with
+horror, as if it were my turn to be executed next. Afterwards I
+compared notes with many others, who owned to exactly the same
+feeling. Father and the Dean dined at the captain's with the other
+officials; but they separated and went home directly after dinner.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ABSALOM'S HAIR ***
+
+This file should be named bslms10.txt or bslms10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, bslms11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, bslms10a.txt
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
+
+Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/bslms10.zip b/old/bslms10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90a145e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/bslms10.zip