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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Downstream - -Author: Sigfrid Siwertz - -Release Date: November 13, 2019 [EBook #60685] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOWNSTREAM *** - - - - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div> - <h1 class='c001'>DOWNSTREAM</h1> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c002' /> -</div> -<p class='c003'> </p> -<div class='box'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i><span class='large'>BORZOI-GYLDENDAL BOOKS</span></i></div> - <div class='c004'>BARBRA RING</div> - <div><i>Into the Dark</i></div> - <div class='c000'>SIGRID UNDSET</div> - <div><i>Jenny</i></div> - <div><i>The Bridal Wreath</i></div> - <div class='c000'>HENNING KEHLER</div> - <div><i>The Red Garden</i></div> - <div class='c000'>SIGFRID SIWERTZ</div> - <div><i>Downstream</i></div> - <div class='c000'>EJNAR MIKKELSON</div> - <div><i>Frozen Justice</i></div> - <div class='c000'>JOHANNES V. JENSEN</div> - <div><i>The Long Journey</i></div> - <div class='c000'>VILHELM RASMUSSEN</div> - <div><i>Child Psychology</i></div> - <div class='c000'>SVEND FLEURON</div> - <div><i>Grim, The Story of a Pike</i></div> - <div><i>Kittens</i></div> - <div class='c000'>LAURIDS BRUUN</div> - <div><i>Van Zanten’s Happy Days</i></div> - <div><i>The Promised Isle</i></div> - <div class='c000'>GUNNAR GUNNARSSON</div> - <div><i>The Sworn Brothers</i></div> - <div><i>Guest the One-Eyed</i></div> - <div class='c000'>JOHANNES BUCHHOLTZ</div> - <div><i>Egholm and his God</i></div> - <div><i>The Miracles of Clara Van Haag</i></div> - <div class='c000'>THE WORKS OF KNUT HAMSUN</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/title.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c002' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='large'>PART ONE</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='11%' /> -<col width='76%' /> -<col width='11%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>I</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Cry</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_3'>3</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>II</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Robbers’ Stronghold</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_10'>10</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>III</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Dance of the Crow Indians</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Peter the Watch-Dog</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>V</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Fear</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Two Fair Heads</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Brundin’s Downfall</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_62'>62</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>September Spring</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IX</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Peter the Boss</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>X</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Laura’s Marriage</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Spanish Saint</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_138'>138</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Peter Casts Out Majängen and Brings Home Ekbacken</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_164'>164</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Tord’s Exile</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_185'>185</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='large'>PART TWO</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='11%' /> -<col width='76%' /> -<col width='11%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>I</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Laura Entertains</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_201'>201</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>II</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Peter the Boss in Love</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_222'>222</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>III</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Angel of Death</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_242'>242</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Cold Moment</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_266'>266</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>V</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Waste</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_293'>293</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Great Dinner</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_317'>317</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Shadow Play</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_345'>345</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Tord Sails Out to Sea</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_371'>371</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IX</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Peter’s Tombstone</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_389'>389</a></td> - </tr> -</table> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>PART ONE</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c002' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span> - <h2 class='c005'>I<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE CRY</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>To tell the story of a child as you would tell the story of -a grown-up would be to commit forgery, for once you -are wide awake it costs you a great effort to describe -a dream exactly as it occurred.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The tide of events flows remote from the child. Only -occasionally do its eddies touch upon the consciousness of -the child, and then the latter is unaware of their significance. -It is precisely this inability to understand the connection between -events which makes the realities of children so dream-like.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the long dream of childhood there reigns a capricious, -mysterious and yet irresistible Fate, beneficent like the fairy -with its wand beside the princess’s cradle, or cruel like the -wolf in Red Riding Hood. The shadow of that Fate still -casts itself over our riper years. It haunts us, ghostlike, -even when we have begun consciously to order our lives. -Only a few chosen spirits are able to cast off the spell of -these fairies and trolls.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This is a tale of people whose childhood was passed in -the shadow of the wolf—and who never could escape from -their childhood.</p> - -<p class='c009'>First let me tell you about that evening, many years ago, -when Peter and Hedvig heard a strange cry coming from the -window of their parents’ bedroom. The whole of that day -it had been evident that something was in the air. The -children were not allowed to go into the bedroom at all, nor -even to play on the stairs. After lunch there arrived an old -lady with a bag. And then an old man in spectacles drove -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>up in a small carriage. It was the doctor. Little Laura -ran away immediately and hid herself, so that she should -not have to show her tongue. But this time the doctor -had not come to see her, for he went straight up to Mother, -and beds were prepared for the children in the green room -downstairs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan, Laura, and Tord had to go to bed at once, as they -were so young. But Peter and Hedvig went out onto the -kitchen steps. There old Kristin sat and told stories of -former days at Selambshof when “Old Hök” was alive.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The most remarkable thing about Kristin was that she -alone survived from the days of the old owner. She was -grey, bent, tough, the incarnation of the everlasting ill-humoured -peasant soul. Even if she only talked of a pair -of grey stockings it still sounded like a fairy tale. And -since, moreover, the fatalism of age is closely related to -the helplessness of childhood, we can well understand that -she had two attentive listeners in Peter and Hedvig. Just -now the great and serious event that was about to occur -plunged her into a gloomy, solemn mood. And just as -her ancestors for hundreds of grey generations before her -had huddled together by the hearth on dark stormy nights -and had told tales of dangers past, so also she now sat -in the autumn twilight on the kitchen stairs at Selambshof -and told ghost stories to the maids and the cowherd about -the old master. She still looked frightened as she talked -of him. It really sounded as if she were talking of some -great and notorious criminal.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had slipped out as silently as a mouse. Her -small face with its dark, hungry eyes was pale. Peter -leaned sulkily in an awkward posture against the doorpost. -But it is not to be supposed that the presence of the children -disturbed Kristin in the very least. She just went on. She -was talking now about the old pensioned couple down by -the Hökar meadow:—You see the master, Old Hök, had -made up his mind to starve out such encumbrances on the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>estate. They received only some thin whey and a little -dust that the miller swept up from the floor. But it is -strange how little an old woman can live on. So the old -master had to turn to vermin. He put a sofa that was -crawling into old Kerstin’s cottage. But Kerstin thought, -“If I must die, I shall at least die on his front step”—so -one winter morning she trailed herself up to his house and -began to take off her rags before the front door. And -you may imagine she was not beautiful, because she had -smeared tar over her whole body as a protection against -lice. It was so awful that even Old Hök had to hurry to -his cupboard and take a drop of something strong.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here Kristin stopped suddenly and caught hold of -Hedvig’s hand as it lay anxiously clenched in her lap. Yes, -indeed, it clenched a sticky lump of sugar. The temptation -had proven too strong as she stole through the empty -kitchen. Kristin’s tone now became still more sinister and -solemn: “Well, well, that’s what heredity does,” she mumbled. -“Keep your fingers out of the sugar jar, Hedvig, -otherwise the sugar knife will fall and cut off your hand. -Or maybe the Bogey Man will come and take you.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig turned quite white. A spasm passed over her -face—but she did not cry. She cowered and went on -listening to Kristin, who continued in her sombre manner: -“Yes, as I always say, everything goes wrong here at -Selambshof, both with human beings and with animals, -since the old master drove away the good house spirits. -And there are strange things both in the forest and in the -lake. Would any of you like to be alone at night time in -Enoch’s cave? And don’t bubbles rise even today by the -big stone beyond the reeds? The master said that Matts -fell in whilst he was trying to catch hold of an oar that he -had lost. But I know what I know. They didn’t find -Matts. But afterwards Old Hök always dropped his hooks -just at that spot and caught lots of eels, and beat the young -master because he wouldn’t eat them. Yes, he was like -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>that. And he has not gone from this place yet. Tell me, -Andres, don’t the horses still jib down there by the grey -stone at the corner of the avenue? They have done so -ever since Old Hök died there. He sat quite straight with -his hands on the knob of his stick and frowned, though he -was stone dead. They had to bring four men to straighten -him out and lay him in his coffin, so obstinate was he even -after death. But he left lots of money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>At this point, old Kristin lowered her voice and became -humble in spite of herself. That was of course the -people’s admiration for wealth. It was the unconditional -surrender of the old peasant woman to the fact of possession. -And both Andres and the maid, who had been -peacefully dozing during this recital of well-known horrors, -now leant forward with listening eyes as Kristin sat -there and spun out her story of all the gold in the chest -and all the corn in the barns— “Yes, he did look after the -farm, did the old master. In those days there was something -like a manure heap for a cock to stand on and crow. -And nobody dared to steal even a potato then. Do you -hear that, Andres? No, those were different days—for now -you do nothing but idle about and steal. Well, I suppose -everything will lie waste soon. Yes, yes, we have not seen -the end yet—we have not seen the end. And there are lots -of children to share it too—and more are coming. It is a -real pity. Poor Peter, who is the eldest and will inherit it. -Poor Peter, that’s what I say! Are you loafing about there -with your hands in your pockets again? Take your hands -out of your pockets—otherwise you will lose both house -and land. You wait and see if I don’t speak the truth. -And don’t climb on the rail and wear out your stockings.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Kristin had come to this point when they heard a scream -from the bedroom upstairs. The silence beneath the bare -elms was suddenly and harshly torn asunder. Perhaps it -sounded to Peter and Hedvig like one of those strange, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>petrified screeches which sometimes fill the sleep of grown-ups -with horror.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The little group dissolved instantly. The maid ran into -the kitchen for the kettles. Anders strolled hesitatingly towards -the lake, and Kristin pushed the children into the -dining-room and turned the key. Peter and Hedvig were -locked in with Old Hök, whose portrait hung there in the -twilight over the leather-covered sofa. They were standing -in the middle of the room and dared not look at the -picture. They were expecting another scream that would -make their hair stand on end again. They supposed it -must come since they had been driven in here. But they -heard no scream—for many long, long minutes all was -still. By and by their eyes were irresistibly drawn to Old -Hök. There he stood in a long, black coat. And his nose -looked like a bird’s beak, and his fingers were clenched -round his stick handle and looked like claws. But worst of -all were his eyes, for wherever you stood they stared -straight down at you, so that you felt that your blood ran -cold. It had, of course, been horrid to listen to Kristin, -but then, it was not altogether uncanny, for there was mixed -with it a curiously pleasant sensation as when you step into -a pool and the cold water oozes into your stockings. But -this! Oh this was ever so much worse! Their childish -fear, awakened out of its semi-sleep, now fluttered wildly -round Old Hök—and Kristin’s superstition and her prophecies -of woe hovered over them in new and terrifying shapes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was perhaps not so sensitive to the more remote -horrors. His fears fastened on what was nearest to hand. -Very small as he was, he stood there staring at the grey and -tattered ghost of poverty. His anxiety was centred on a -big signet ring that Old Hök was wearing on his finger. -He wore it, of course, because he was awfully rich. But -where was the ring now? Old Hök’s eyes pursued him -with the question: Where is my ring now? Peter knew -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>nothing of it. His father had not worn it, and it was not in -his mother’s jewel box. Supposing Anders had stolen it! -Or fat Lotten in the kitchen? Fancy if they should steal -everything at Selambshof, so that he, Peter, had to sit -without any clothes in the forest and starve and shiver. -Fancy if that was why Mamma lay up there and screamed -so terribly. Yes, he knew it was Mamma who had -screamed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was Peter’s fear. But Hedvig’s fear was different, -deeper, vaguer. She was afraid of the Bogey Man -with whom Kristin used to frighten her. And now he had -suddenly assumed Old Hök’s features. Yes the Bogey -Man was there in the room, just in front of her. But it -never occurred to her to take Peter’s hand. Hedvig was not -like that. She was alone from the beginning, alone in her -fear and helpless with that complete and profound helplessness -that grown-ups only experience in the dangers and -horrors of a nightmare.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And now they heard another scream, fainter but just as -dreadful. It came from all sides at once—from the stairs, -from the door, from the walls themselves. Hedvig suddenly -understood, the Bogey Man had come! He was taking -somebody as he passed on his way. Because it was, -of course, herself, Hedvig, that he really wanted. She -shrank and closed her eyes. Then she looked up again, -just for a second. He was no longer there above the sofa. -He had climbed down—he was coming towards her! He -was stretching out his claws!!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig dug her nails into the edge of the table and -screamed, screamed wildly. She could not bear it. Peter -also started screaming. He saw himself standing starving -and naked in a big dark forest full of wolves. It is -not to be wondered at then that they screamed. But that -was not all. The younger children, who slept in the adjoining -room, awoke in a fright and started to scream too. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>So the whole chorus of children’s voices joined with the -mother’s groans above.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Kristin suddenly appeared in the door with a candle: -“Good gracious—you dreadful children to make such a -noise when the mistress is ill!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She packed Peter and Hedvig into the green room. Oh, -what a wonderful, pleasant relief it was to feel Kristin’s -bony hands in your back. They undressed with feverish -haste, afraid lest she should go before they had had time to -pull the bedclothes over their heads.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Dearest Kristin, please leave the light burning.”—“Nonsense, -go to sleep now.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And the light was gone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They lay huddled up in terrible darkness like two poor -little orphans. Fear kept them long awake and pursued -them ever in their dreams, when at last they had fallen -asleep. The night of the earth is but a passing shadow, -but the night of fear in the heart is evil and long. And -for many it seems as if there will be no morning.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The following day the children at Selambshof lost their -mother. Both she and the newborn baby died before their -father reached home. He had been kept late during a -shoot at Kolsnäs.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span> - <h2 class='c005'>II<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE ROBBER’S STRONGHOLD</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>The children were playing up in the big attic at -Selambshof. The rain pattered against the tiles of -the roof and rushed down the spouts. But inside it -was dry and dusty and mysterious in the twilight among -the roof-timbers and the chimney pipes. And there were -heaps of things that the grown-ups had thrown aside, but -which for that very reason were so tempting: old, worn-out -things which had reached their second childhood, and just -for that reason suited the children’s games so well.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was only with great difficulty that Stellan could open -the lock of the iron-bound oak chest. Triumphant, he -pulled out a torn black skirt and spread it over the pram in -which Hedvig lay on her back, pale and with her legs hanging -over the edge. He called to Peter, who was the hearse-horse, -and the melancholy procession was just about to -start, when Hedvig began to sneeze because the skirt was -full of red pepper.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Can’t you pretend to be dead, you silly girl,” shouted -Stellan impatiently.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Laura bent down and giggled in the midst of the -procession. Besides these two, the mourners were Herman -Hermansson from Ekbacken and little Tord. But Tord -did not want to take part in the game any longer, so he crept -into a corner and sulked. The outlook was not very -promising.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Creakily the pram began to move. They were playing -“Mamma’s funeral” for the hundredth time.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>The procession stopped before the church, which was the -triangle under the staircase up to the ceiling. Herman, -with an air of deadly earnest on his open face, stood and -chimed a nail on a stove ring. But Stellan drew the black -skirt over his shoulders and climbed up on a wooden box -and pretended to be the clergyman. He threw his head -back and laying his hands on his chest began to hold forth: -“From the earth you come, and wipe your feet, and honour -your father and mother and sister and brother, and don’t -hang on to people’s skirts, and don’t balance yourself on -your chair because you will fall, fallevall, appala, mesala, -mesinka, meso, sebedi, sebede, and get away now you silly, -for now you are dead.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>This long rigmarole was uttered with the utmost solemnity -and did not fail to impress the listeners. Hedvig grew -frightened of shamming death. She was so frightened that -she felt cold shivers down her back. But she did not climb -out of the coffin, she remained as quiet as a mouse, for she -knew that if she gave up the place of honour Laura would -seize it at once. And Hedvig did not want that on any -account.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Suddenly the rain stopped pattering on the roof. -Silently the shadows crept on in the dust under the heavy -beams. It was as if the silence and the emptiness of the -big gloomy house had stealthily crept up among these -mourners. They really felt the emptiness after their -mother’s death, after her dainties and her scolding—perhaps -most after her scolding. Yes, formerly when Mamma -was in the kitchen scolding, they heard it up in the attic. -But with old Kristin it was different. She kept on worrying -them the whole time—and they got tired of it—</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then there was something funny about father. -Since Mamma died he was always in town, and when sometimes -he came home he looked so dull-eyed and shabby, almost -as if he was drunk. And then they felt still lonelier. -Stellan had overheard Kristin say to the gardener that the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>master was drinking himself to death—but Stellan could -not understand how that could happen. Surely one did -not die from being drunk?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Alas, how gloomy and empty it was up there in the big -attic! Herman began to long for his home at Ekbacken -where it was not at all strange as it was here.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But the Selambshof children felt they must fight against -the silence with shouts and noise and quarrelling.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Let us play drunkards,” shouted Peter and began to -slouch and reel and push the others about in his clumsy -way.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stellan knew better. Both Peter and Herman were -stronger than Stellan, but all the same it was usually he -who was leader. If a lot of dogs play about on a lawn -you will in nine cases out of ten find that there is a small -one taking the lead in the game.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, let us get out on the roof and play robbers,” he -shouted.</p> - -<p class='c009'>With the help of Peter and Herman he managed to open -the big trap door and they tumbled out on the roof, which -sloped gently and had strong iron bars between the battlements. -Selambshof was an old manor house which -had been rebuilt, during a period of bad taste, in the -gloomy style of a fortress castle, with narrow windows, -towers, gables and battlements.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They were on forbidden ground. Hedvig stopped half -inside and half outside the trap—she was like that. “Take -care you people on the roof,” she whimpered repeatedly to -the others, but they took no notice of her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was awfully cold up there. And it gave you a queer -feeling in the pit of the stomach to be so high over the wet -glistening tops of the trees in the park. And she had never -seen such a big black cloud as the one which was just passing -over the town. Beneath was the black smoke and -through the smoke the windows flashed like a shot. But -opposite the sky was as green as ice, except in the furthest -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>distance over the dark and ragged edge of the forest, where -it was yellow. And the lake looked like a piece of mirror -of the sky which had fallen down among the trees. It was -quite unbroken except between Kolsnäs and Stonehill, -where the steamer was passing and shattered it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was the first to reach the railing. Oh, how cold -he felt about the forehead. But giddiness changed to recklessness—wild -shouting recklessness. How small everything -down there looked! Just look at Anders at the corner -of the stable! Wasn’t he a mere spot. And Kristin—what -did he care about Kristin? No, now they would have -some fun!</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Selambshof is a robbers’ stronghold!” he shouted—quite -pale with excitement. “We are wild highwaymen! -We care for nothing—we just kill and take what -we want.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>This seemed to appeal to Peter. He took aim at Ekbacken -and pulled the trigger—that is to say he levelled -his finger and said: “Bang, I shot Ekbacken! Ekbacken -is mine.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman protested: “No—Ekbacken belongs to my -father.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was severely snubbed: “Blockhead! are we robbers -or are we not?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then Stellan mercilessly shot to pieces Kolsnäs, the -white walls of which peeped out behind the trees on the -other side of the lake. Peter reloaded and took aim and -shot at Trefvinge, which was the finest place within sight, -a real big castle with four copper towers far away beyond -the edge of the forest. Things were now getting exciting, for -Peter and Stellan and Herman were all aiming at the town -itself with all its church towers and chimneys! <i>Bang, Bang, -Bang</i>, the shots were fired almost simultaneously.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The town is mine” cried Herman. “I shot first.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I shot first,” lied Peter confidently.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>“No, mine was the only one that hit,” cried Stellan -stamping on the roof. “Now both Kolsnäs and the town -are mine.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That’s not fair,” insisted Herman, “I ought to have -something, and I shot first.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That’s a lie,” insisted Peter quietly, but menacingly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was already furious: “Whose idea was it that -we should play robbers—eh? I am the chief of the robbers. -And now I have taken the town and am king of -the castle.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman would not give way, as he knew that his was -the first shot.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It’s not fair. It’s beastly unfair. I won’t play robbers -with you if you are unfair.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It looked like a fight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had been watching with her teeth chattering and -trying to hide her little fat fingers in the sleeves of her -frock. Now she jumped excitedly down towards the infuriated -robbers. Unobserved, even Hedvig left her spy -hole in the trap.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan and Herman had already come to grips and -scratched and tore at each other in the artless way of children. -At last they began to wrestle and Stellan, who was -the shorter of the two, was underneath.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You see that I did shoot first,” panted Herman.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter with his cool cheek intervened. He rolled -round this human knot and extricated Stellan, who, rather -shamefaced at his defeat, withdrew with feigned contempt -from the robber band. Then Peter sat down astride of -Herman.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now say that the town is mine.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He began to jump on Herman. This hurt Herman, because -he was lying athwart the ridge of the roof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Say that it is mine!”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>“No.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter jumped on him more than ever.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Is it mine, what?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman did not cry out. But he hit out wildly, and at -last, maddened by pain, he bit Peter’s hand. Peter at once -uttered a wild scream. Then Herman let go. But Peter -was wise and screamed after the pain was gone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Take care, you who bite,” piped Hedvig in her thin -voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman suddenly became horrified at his wicked deed. -“Dear Peter, please forgive me,” he begged.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Was it I who took the town then?” hissed Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, I suppose it was.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter felt better at once, but it suddenly struck him that -his victory was not worth much and so he began to moan -and cry again: “Oh, Oh, Oh.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman was again alarmed and stricken with remorse: -“Dear Peter, don’t cry, please forgive me, Peter, dear.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Will you give me your glass marble then?” whimpered -Peter pitifully.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman pulled the glass marble out of his bag with a -sigh and gave it to Peter. So at last Peter had gained -something real from his robber’s career. He stood smiling -to himself and weighed the five heavy marbles in his right -hand but did not trouble to wipe off the blood from his -left hand. It might always be useful to leave it there.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During this scene little Tord had also clambered out -on to the roof. But he took no notice of the cries and noise -of the others. He sat apart and leant over an old green -box where nasturtiums had once grown, but which was now -half-filled with rain water. Something moved in the -depths. Strange little creatures with only heads and tails -teemed in it. And they rose to the surface with little -jerks and then disappeared again in the black, brown -depths. Oh! how wonderfully mysterious it all was! He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>drew himself up silently. He cast anxious side-glances at -the fight which was going on. Soon they would probably -come and kick over the whole of his wonderful find. He -hated his big brothers and sisters, who never let him enjoy -anything in peace.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A voice was heard from the stairs and he crept behind -the chimney.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was Kristin. She emerged from the trap door like -an old witch ready for a ride on her broom. She shook -her fist, which was covered with gouty lumps, but nevertheless -still had an iron grip.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Were there ever such heathen children. You will -break your necks and be good for nothing—that’s what will -happen to you. Come down at once from the roof.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The children slouched back to the trap door. Each one -of them felt Kristin’s fingers in his hair. Peter approached -cautiously and hunched up, holding his wounded hand like -a shield in front of him. Kristin caught sight of it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What have you been doing, you naughty boy?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter did not tell any tales himself but he looked beseechingly -at Hedvig. He knew that she could not resist.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It was Herman,” she panted. “He bit Peter until the -blood ran. I only went out on the roof to see who was -crying.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>In this way both Peter and Hedvig escaped a hair pulling -and that was exactly what they had hoped for.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman got a double dose and went home with -bitterness in his heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Not until the other children were in their beds was Tord -missed. It was not at all unusual for him to be lost like -that. They looked for him in the usual places: the empty -dog kennel, the wood shed, the hollow oak by the stable. -But without success. At last Hedvig remembered that he -had been with them on the roof and there they found him -huddled up on the cold tiles, leaning against the box with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>the wonderful mosquito larvæ, and wet with dew. He was -sleeping with his dirty little thumb in his mouth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Soon everything was silent in the big house. And one -of the frosty “iron” nights of June fell with its devastation -upon the neglected garden and fields of Selambshof.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span> - <h2 class='c005'>III<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE DANCE OF THE CROW INDIANS</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>It was a fine warm summer afternoon, when the mosquito -swarms hovered like high pillars of smoke in the -avenue of Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But in the garden on the north side of the house Oskar -Selamb was sitting in his usual seat. He was sitting just -where the mosses of the walls hung most heavily over the -grey stone base and where the damp shade beneath the old -elm tree seemed full of evil memories. His big straw hat -was pushed far back on his head and his purple trembling -hands were clasped round the handle of his walking stick. -His beard grew like a weed round his weak half open -mouth, and he stared in front of him with a lifeless, -taciturn gloom that had little human left in it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A friend of former days would scarcely have recognized -him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>How had Oskar Selamb, owner of Selambshof, father of -five young children, and not much past fifty, come to such -a pass? The immediate cause was probably the death of -his wife, but in order really to understand this tragedy -one must go back to the tyranny of old Enoch. It was he -who had broken his son’s spirit. Up to his thirtieth year -Oskar had been little more than a sort of superior farm -labourer on the estate, without any rights, without a will -of his own, reviled and ill-treated by Old Hök, who kept his -claws and his beak sharp till the end. It leaves a mark on -a man to have his hopes in life picked piece by piece out -of his breast by a father who feeds his own strong flame of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>life by doing so. When the hour of delivery once struck -at last, Oskar Selamb had come to hate his inheritance. -Yes, he hated this place of humiliation, for ever haunted by -the old man’s shadow. But he had not strength to throw it -all off and begin afresh. He merely absented himself as -much as possible and let the estate go to ruin. And late in -life he married a servant girl, whom he had raised to the -rank of housekeeper at Selambshof. His friends were not -surprised by this mesalliance. Even during the days of his -humiliation he had been fond of the girl, for which reason -of course she had at once been shown the door. And when -Oskar afterwards by chance caught sight of her behind a -bar, he took her into his house and married her, out -of pure spite, as people said, in order to make old -Enoch turn in his grave. To tell the truth, he was not -in love with her. It was rather the spasmodic effort of -a weak and vacillating man to kick away the past. His wife -was a small, dark, thin woman with a pointed nose, and -moderately capable and energetic within her domain. Her -voice penetrated shrill and alert through the fumes of the -kitchen or the washtub. She remained a bad-tempered but -capable servant of her husband and, later, of the children. -But for her the home would not have held together as well -as it did, for Oskar Selamb became more and more incapable -of looking after anything. And he still spent -most of his time in the town. There he sat among -his fellow topers, lost at whist and in business, cursed -and harangued, as weak people do, between his draughts -of steaming toddy, on the evils of the times. Meanwhile -Selambshof decayed, Ryssvik was lost, the forest melted -away and the mortgages became heavier and heavier. -His wife bore him in quick succession and with eternal -lamentations, five hungry and crying children. With the -sixth she succumbed herself. When her husband came -driving home that autumn morning she already lay dead in -the big double bed.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>Oskar Selamb had never loved his wife. He had neglected -her, treated her brutally, and worn her out. But all -the same her death gave him the finishing blow. It was her -scolding that had kept him going. Now he sank irrevocably. -His journeys to town grew more frequent then ever. -Meaner and meaner grew the bars outside which his shabby -old coach had to wait till late into the night. He could not -even keep himself decent. Old friends avoided him, whilst -discussing with interest whether it was from joy of getting -rid of his wife or from grief at losing her that he was drinking -himself to death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The more subtle held that it was a combination of these -two feelings. The only one who tried to do something for -his friend Oskar was his neighbour and companion from -childhood, William Hermansson, owner of the Ekbacken -sawmill and shipyard. As it happened the Ekbacken establishment -was situated just by the main road into town, -and when, nowadays, William saw Oskar’s dreary looking -coach, he stepped out on to his front-door step and admonished -his old friend in carefully chosen words. He tried -in every way to tempt him to decent intercourse in his respectable -and comfortable widower’s home, reminding him -of the times when he had found a refuge there from old -Enoch’s tyranny. But Oskar always drove past with some -vague pretext of important meetings and urgent business.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Within a few months the crash came. Oskar Selamb was -brought home a pitiful wreck after having had a stroke at -a miserable little inn in the slums. After several months -he got up from his sickbed, bloated, with unsteady hands, -and no memory, scarcely a human being any more. But -still there was no sign that death would mercifully do -its work. After solemn lamentations, the owner of Ekbacken -agreed to become the guardian of the children, and -through his efforts a new bailiff, named John Brundin, was -appointed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That is how things had been for more than two years at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>Selambshof. Thus on the still summer evening we have -described Oskar Selamb sat on his usual seat underneath -the old elm. He sat there so motionless that the sparrows -hopped about in front of him on the round stone slab -superposed on an enormous oak stump which did service -as a table. But out there in the slanting golden rays of -the sun, round the wing where the bailiff lived, shimmered -clouds of gnats and fine spiders’ webs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan and Laura were playing in the sand and in the -lilac hedge in front of the house. The simple games of -robbers of former days were now a thing of the past. They -wore a bright array of feathers, and carried bows and -tomahawks. They had read Cooper and Marryat and -knew how to choose impressive names and make subtle -stratagems. The hedge was also dense and deep, with fine -ambushes and splendid hiding places for stealthy Indian -warfare. Stellan was called “Black Panther” and Laura -“Flying Arrow.” Don’t imagine that she was allowed to -impersonate some pale squaw with a soft flower name. -No, she was a young warrior on her first warpath. “Black -Panther’s” voice sounded sharp and commanding when he -was teaching his young companions the use of the bow. -“Flying Arrow” had displayed some squeamishness and -had giggled in an unwarriorlike manner, which was not in -keeping with the seriousness of the moment, and which was -duly corrected.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was looking on. Big and clumsy in his outgrown -and patched sailor’s suit, he leant against a rusty rainpipe -grinning provocatively. “Black Panther” ran up to him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Won’t you come and play with us and be a Pale-Face?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No,” came Peter’s sulky reply in a husky voice, about -to break—</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Black Panther” looked round about him wondering how -to get some new excitement into the game, as it was beginning -to become dull. His glance fell with a sudden expression -of premature and hopeless loathing on his father on the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>seat. But just as suddenly he brightened up—caught hold -of “Flying Arrow” by the arm and pointed at the old man:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He is a Comanche. He is ‘Heavy Ox.’ We’ll creep up -to him from two sides.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Black Panther” and “Flying Arrow” crept across the -plot of sand with sly, watchful eyes. Then “Black Panther” -sprang up like a steel spring released and swung his lasso. -“Heavy Ox” was caught. They tied him to the seat as to a -torture post. “Heavy Ox” did not seem to notice anything. -From behind, “Black Panther” even managed to put on his -head a chieftain’s feather crown consisting of some crow’s -feathers pushed into the ribbon of an old, brimless, tattered -straw hat. But “Heavy Ox” sat there with his new and -wonderful ornament as solemnly and as apathetically -unconcerned as ever.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Shrill laughter from “Flying Arrow” greeted this ridiculous -apparition.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They began to dance round their victim. Swinging their -tomahawks and their bows, they danced to the accompaniment -of wild cries of excitement.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“‘Heavy Ox’ can’t get free! ‘Heavy Ox’ is fat and -stupid! ‘Heavy Ox’ shall die. ‘Heavy Ox’ is fat and -stupid!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>This sudden wild joy quite surprised the Crow Indians -themselves. They perhaps did not know that there was -vengeance in this game. And how much had they not to -avenge! How well they might have called out to “Heavy -Ox”: “That is for the hundreds of meals that were made -disgusting by your nasty snuffling! That’s for your horrid -snuffle and for your dull eyes that don’t see us! That’s for -the neglect, the ruin, the incurable wounds to our tender -beings! That’s for the great musty hole in which we spend -our childhood.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tired of dancing they sat down to smoke a calumet, -whilst still deriding and challenging their bound enemy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Heavy Ox” had taken no more notice of his tormentors -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>than of the flies that buzzed around him. But now he -showed signs of restlessness. And his restlessness was always -of the same kind:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Is it time for supper soon?” he stammered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then they jumped up again and began to dance with a -renewal of their wild exultation:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“‘Heavy Ox’ shan’t get any food. ‘Heavy Ox’ is fat and -stupid. ‘Heavy Ox’ shall die! ‘Heavy Ox’ is fat and -stupid!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was still leaning against the rainpipe. He followed -the game with a half troubled, half pleased, grin. -“They will catch it for this,” he thought. “I have not -taken part in it. I have been standing here the whole time -by the rainpipe and have not taken any part in it.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter saw Mr. Brundin thrust his head out of a -window. It was beginning to get exciting. The punishment -for these reckless children was drawing nearer. But -Peter was at once disillusioned. Brundin only laughed -and puffed at a big cigar. And Peter made a note in his -memory that Brundin only grinned at forbidden and dangerous -things.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then at last something happened. Old Hermansson -came walking up the avenue. And instantly Brundin’s -head disappeared from the window. But “Black Panther” -and “Flying Arrow” noticed nothing. Old Hermansson -walked quietly across the sand plot. He was as straight-backed -as if he had been drawn on a slate by a good boy. -He walked with his coat buttoned high up to the throat, -his head erect, and his hands behind his back. He walked -with measured dignity and each step seemed to be an admonition -to the careless, the irreverent and the reckless. -One can scarcely imagine anything more typical to children -of the grown-up.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stood still with excitement and bit his nails. This -was really a great moment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Mr. Brundin came rushing out of the door. He had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>put aside the big cigar and hastened with every mark of -respect to free “Heavy Ox” from his bonds, whilst with -serious and angry mien he shook his fist at the two Indians.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This was something more for Peter to note: a moment -ago Brundin had only grinned and now he became serious -when old Hermansson was present.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last old Hermansson had arrived. Now at last somebody -would be cuffed. But Peter had to wait. Old Hermansson -first saw that the unsuitable ornament was removed -from his old friend’s head. Then he greeted him, -obstinately maintaining the habit of speech of past and -happier days.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How do you do, how do you do, my dear Oskar? I -hope you are well. Yes, it is a fine day today, a very fine -day. So I thought I would take a little walk in order to -talk to our good bailiff about the rye-crop.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Oskar Selamb had recovered his greasy old hat again. -But he was clearly completely insensible to these see-saws -of exultation and degradation. He stared sulkily in front -of him and grunted:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I want my supper—can’t I have my supper?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“In due time, my dear Oskar. In due time you will -certainly have your supper.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now it seemed to be Stellan’s and Laura’s turn. Their -guardian placed himself in front of them and made a -little speech:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Listen carefully now, my children,” he said. “I don’t -want to see you show your father such disrespect again. -Honour thy father and mother that thy days may be long -in the land and that it may go well with you.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here he shook his head solemnly and let the culprits go. -And the fair and plump little Laura danced away with -small side steps like a puppy, but not before she had cast -a coquettish and triumphant glance at Peter in passing, -as if to say,—“Cheated!—there was no thrashing!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stellan stood there with all his war-like array in his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>hand and with an air of disillusionment looked at “Heavy -Ox,” who was no longer “Heavy Ox,” but only the familiar -dismal figure. Then he lightly shrugged his shoulders -and quietly went away whistling among the currant bushes. -With his quick cold eyes and his proud mouth he did not -exactly look like one of those who fare badly in this world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It may be that old Hermansson was also somewhat mistaken. -It may be that callousness developed early in life -may be one of the conditions of success in this world. It -may be that daily and hourly contact with degraded humanity -simply hardens a little Indian’s heart for life’s cruel -warfare.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span> - <h2 class='c005'>IV<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>PETER THE WATCH-DOG</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Peter’s school report at the end of the term was, as -usual, not good, and he was not promoted. Now he -sat in the billiard room on the third floor grinding -away in the summer holidays.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sat drawing his fingers through his rough hair and -bent over his book. We all know that struggle against -an incurable lack of concentration, the bending very closely -over an unfortunate text until the letters begin to swell -and jostle each other out of line and shamelessly vanish -in the blue.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter lifted his head, puffing as if he had been under -water and could no longer hold his breath. But it was -not only the common, boyish instinct to throw all to the -winds and rush out to the day’s adventures in the forest -and field. It was not only the healthy restlessness of a -growing boy that was reflected in his face. He turned and -twisted on his chair and looked about him, and secretly -cast stealthy side-glances from beneath his unkempt shock -of hair as if fearing that somebody stood behind him listening -to his thoughts.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Not even when he was alone could he look anything -straight in the face.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now he jumped up and took a turn round the old billiard -table covered by an old torn dust sheet. All round -him in the dilapidated room the torn wallpaper was curling -and the dry paint was peeling off the skirting boards -and window frames. Peter stopped a moment in front of a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>blackboard that had once been the billiard marker, but -which was now covered with his unsolved algebra problems. -He made a weak effort, but then he flung away the chalk -as if it had burnt his fingers, and rushed suddenly to the -window and peeped out.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Since Old Hök’s time the billiard room had been generally -called the conservatory. Its high, narrow fortress-like -windows faced three ways, and from this high point one -could look out over the whole of the Selamb estate. On a -stand made of three worn-out cues stood a long, battered -leather-covered telescope. It was here that Peter’s grandfather -used to sit and spy on his people in order mercilessly -to sweep down on the idle or the dishonest. You could -still see his old focus marks on the brass tube of the telescope, -and they had crept further and further out as he -grew older and more short sighted.</p> - -<p class='c009'>If anybody had seen Peter by the window overlooking the -terrace he would have thought that Old Hök was not yet -quite dead.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The bailiff was going to have a crayfish party for some -friends from the town. He was standing down there hanging -up Chinese lanterns. Frida, the new maid, was handing -them to him out of a big clothes basket.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter found it impossible to remain any longer at his -work. Silently as a mouse he stole out into the garden. -He did not make straight for the terrace, but walked with -long, searching side-glances till at last he settled on an -observation post in the dense lilac hedge. Then he pretended -to be carving a stick, but all the time he kept his -eyes on the little lantern-scene. Brundin was standing -in his shirt sleeves with a long cigar stuck in the corner -of his mouth so as not to get the smoke in his eyes. He was -a fair man with small, light, curly mustaches. He was -wearing a check waistcoat, riding breeches and top boots. -But even if he did not look like the Fairy Prince himself, -he might at least have passed for one of the members of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>his suite. For the moment he was carrying on with Frida, -who made eyes and giggled as if he had tickled her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sat and fidgetted. There was a lot of questions -that tormented him like insects. That Brundin -fellow had no farm, so how could he be so awfully smart -with his check waistcoat and heavy gold chain stretched -across his vest? And his tie-pin was as big as a penny! -And where had he got all those splendid lanterns. And -why should Frida stand there and dance attendance on him -and hand him the lanterns?</p> - -<p class='c009'>All Peter’s brooding and discontent found expression -in that one question: why should our Frida stand there -and hand lanterns to Brundin? And he had to gulp it down -time after time lest it should escape his lips in a loud -growl.</p> - -<p class='c009'>No, he could not bear to look any longer.</p> - -<p class='c009'>With his eyes on the ground and his big hands hanging -awkwardly by his sides Peter strolled round the yard and -out into the fields. He lumbered about like a watch-dog, -sniffing reflectively at every corner. Everywhere he -scented decay. From his own father, who sat there heedless -and inert on his bench by the front door, and who in -the depth of his decay had no thought for anything else -but his next meal, this ruin spread itself over garden, -barn, stable and granary—and out over fields, meadows -and forest. There were a thousand things that whispered -of it, the weeds in the paths, the broken glass of the -cucumber frames, the broken down, moss-covered fences, -bottomless patches of road, bare neglected forest slopes. -There were a thousand things Peter would have liked to -ask Brundin about, but when he met him smart and resplendent -with a big cigar in the corner of his mouth, -a kind of paralysis of fear overtook him. Not with red-hot -tongs could one have dragged a straightforward, direct -question out of the boy—and that even though the -bailiff had never uttered an unkind word to him, but on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>the contrary had cracked good-natured jokes with him and -had offered him good things from town which Peter had -grabbed clumsily and disappeared with, like a dog who is -afraid of a thrashing.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The labourers on the estate were the only ones with -whom Peter could talk on the subject. Obeying the instinct -of a sort of subordinate, the future heir pried about -for signs of discontent, for hints and suggestions. But -he had little success. It was of importance that he -should be very careful. He turned his questions over -and over again in his mind before they passed his lips. -In his timidity and excess of carefulness he began to -beat about the bush so much that often he never reached -his point at all. Those who asked for nothing better -than to speak the truth about the bailiff did not understand -what he was driving at. And cleverer ones and -those with a bad conscience saw through him in their own -way, and thought it best to beware of this sneaking, -spying nuisance of a boy and not to criticise those in -authority.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Down in the bend of the avenue Peter met Anders, who -was driving home with a load of rye from the Hökar -meadow. The boy climbed up in the rye beside the -old stable hand, but he did not think how jolly it was to lie -softly like this among the sheaves glowing with blue cornflowers -and to swing gently along in the half-light under the -old elms. Today his restlessness was worse than ever, and -he grew quite bold of speech.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How much is a load like this worth, Anders?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, it’s worth a good deal of money. And it would -fetch more if it wasn’t for the weeds.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Who takes care of the money?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The bailiff, of course.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But Anders, when they pay him the money, how can he -know what is ours and what is his?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, Master Peter, the bailiff keeps his books.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>“But supposing somebody went and wrote something -wrong in his books?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, they can’t, for he keeps his books locked up, -you see.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But suppose he should forget to write something in the -books?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter’s tone was one of entreaty, but Anders was impossible.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is his chief work to write down everything in the -books,” he muttered with a side-glance.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus Peter helped to drive in the rye. They had reached -the barn now and he jumped down no wiser than before. -The cracked old gong rang for dinner, and it sounded like -a funeral bell.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The dining-room smelt of “sluring,” a soup which was -the abomination of all the children. They pushed the -chairs about, kicked each other’s legs, and quarrelled because -nobody wanted to sit next to father, who was horrid -at table. They were just like a lot of crows on a branch -at night time, pecking at each other because none wants to -sit furthest out on the branch, in the darkness and emptiness. -Finally Tord was pushed there, he was the smallest -and weakest. Frida flung down the soup. It was worse -than ever. There had probably been no time for cooking -because of the preparations for the evening party. Peter -shrank and held his hands to his ears so as not to hear his -father eating his soup. There came a queer smell from the -neighbourhood of Tord, who did not touch his food but -pulled out a dirty handkerchief full of snakes’ eggs which -he had found in the manure heap. Stellan waited upon his -father. When he had lapped up his soup, the young man -was there in a flash with his own full plate the contents of -which disappeared just as quickly. Laura’s plate went the -same way. Those two always adopted the same strategy. -But Peter and Hedvig did their duty. There were bread -fritters to follow. Old Kristin came in. Nowadays, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>there was not much left of her. Usually she sat in her little -room mumbling as she knitted. But she still retained her -power over Tord, so he had to sit there with his soup. -He could be shut up with his plate for ever so long without -uttering a sound. He was a strange, silent child, Tord.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Still hungry and out of humour Peter crept down into -the garden and stole whatever he could find to eat there.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the steamer arrived with Brundin’s guests. There -were corn dealers, greengrocers, and butchers from the -town, nothing but rogues that he did business with. They -at once sat down to smoke and drink punch at a long -table on the terrace. From the beginning there were heard -shouts of coarse, bass voices and roars of laughter, and it -was clear that they had laid a solid foundation for their -merriment in some inn in town. Frida, fresh and not at -all shy, in spite of her seventeen years, flitted about the -whole time bearing trays frequently replenished and was -vigorously pinched, tickled and caressed. But in the midst -of all shone Brundin in his check waistcoat, and whenever -you looked at him he sat with glass uplifted and “Your -health” on his lips.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter hovered about, gloomy and unnoticed, on the -fringe of this festive party. He loitered about the bedroom -window, he crept into the lilac hedge. In the end -he secured himself up among the branches of the big -maple tree below the signal-guns on the terrace. From -there he saw them light the gay-coloured lanterns and bring -in the enormous dishes of crayfish, with their fennel crowns -to the accompaniment of wild shouts of welcome. The -lanterns swung to and fro and the candles in the big candlesticks -from off the sideboard flickered and flamed as if intoxicated, -and cast a shimmering light on napkins tied -round fat necks, on rolled-up shirt sleeves and rows of -sparkling glasses simultaneously raised.</p> - -<p class='c009'>To crown all Peter saw how Stellan and Laura who had -been leaping round with eager and unrestrained curiosity -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>amongst the merry guests were called by the bailiff, and -how each was given a big portion of crayfish to eat at -the table. Breathlessly Peter held fast to his branch and -communed with the whispering gloom of the great, dark -tree top.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then an old fellow rose and thanked the host. He -fumbled with his wine glass and now and then squeezed -out a word, just as if he had been on the point of suffocation -before he got it out. And his shadow, ragged and -giantlike, mounted the loosening plaster of the walls of -Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Kalle Brundin,” he shouted, “Kalle Brundin! All here -present join with me! And what do we join in? We join -in the belief that this has been a damned fine party. -Damned jolly to see you out here in your old Selambshof! -Thank you, Kalle Brundin! A fourfold hurrah for Kalle -Brundin and his Selambshof. May he live long: hip, hip, -hurrah!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>In reply Kalle Brundin pointed with an elegant gesture -to the landing stage and the steamer. And instantly the -whole company stumbled towards it, so that the table was -deserted.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sssh! Bang! there went the first rocket. And then came -cracking grasshoppers and divers that fizzed and spluttered -in the water, and golden rains that vomited sparks -round the gate posts, and bright Roman candles, and then -rockets again and crackers and starlights.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter slipped down out of the tree. This was too much. -He shrank as if the sparks had rained in his eyes. What -was it that sparkled and cracked but Brundin’s arrogance. -This abominable Brundin filled the skies with his violent, -sneering, exultant pride.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But amidst the smell of powder there came some odours -from the table and then it struck Peter that Brundin for -the moment was not guarding his interests on the terrace. -In a trice Peter was there. Like a frightened, thieving dog -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>he gulped down pieces of meat, cake and whatever was left -in the wine glasses. He had not time to taste anything -properly and half choked himself, but somehow it did him -good all the same. It was as if he had stolen back a little -of his own, and with a somewhat easier mind he stole away -into the darkness again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The fireworks were over and the guests stumbled back to -their punch glasses again. But now it seemed as if the -last remnants of their dignity had vanished with the rockets. -Some fell down on the chairs as if their legs had been -struck off beneath them. And some stood with their arms -round each others’ necks, panting, as if they would drown -each other in friendship. And others were quarrelling with -raised voices that were lost among the shy shadows of the -still August night. But Brundin sat there unperturbed and -contented in the midst of the noise, like the devil at a horsefair, -smiling with half-closed eyes and puffing at his cigar.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter heard somebody come stamping out on the -kitchen stairs where he was sitting. It was old Kristin. -In the light of the lanterns which now caught fire and -flared up one after the other she raised her trembling, bony -arms like two withered branches. And she muttered a long -string of reproaches and threats against the impious bailiff -and his inhuman company. When she caught sight of Peter -her voice, which seemed to have been worn down to a pale, -feeble thread by all the unhappiness and misery of this -world, broke and putting her cold, withered hand on his -head, she said: “You poor orphan children! We all know -what happens to them. You will never grow up to sit at -Selambshof. No. No!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thereupon old Kristin stumped in again. But Peter felt -the chill of that withered, trembling hand through his -whole body right down to his toes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Frida came carrying a tray of empty glasses, pursued -by panting and shouting figures, which let fall coins -in the pockets of her apron and in her hair and down her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>plump neck inside her cotton blouse. But she looked over -their shoulders at Brundin, who was standing by the corner -of his wing of the house making some mysterious signs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the whole company broke up and returned home by -land and down the avenue the babel of voices gradually -disappeared.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was just going to bed. He did not light the lamp, -but sat for a moment balanced on the edge of the bed and -listening to Stellan’s breathing beside him. Then he crept -to the window again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>All was dark and silent. Only from a chink in a blind -in the bailiff’s wing a narrow streak of light cut the darkness. -Over the dusky house there hung the witchery of an -unknown fear. As Peter stared out he seemed to see a -shadow cross the yard and disappear under the lime tree -by Brundin’s porch. Peter stole quietly down the stairs -again. The sky had clouded over and it had become -strangely oppressive. There was soughing and whispering -in the darkness. Peter walked on the edge of the grass so -that the gravel should not crunch beneath his feet. In the -sweet smell under the lime tree he suddenly struck against -something soft, and heard a low, frightened cry.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was Hedvig, his sister. He had not seen her the -whole evening. He pinched her arm:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What are you doing here, girl?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig was breathing heavily. Through the darkness he -could almost see how pale she was.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Frida!” It escaped her in a whisper, and she pointed to -a window that stood open where the blind was drawn: -“There, there!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter put his arm round her waist in order to pass her -on the narrow grass edge. She was trembling and she -seemed in a cold sweat, blended of shame, curiosity and -disgust.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Go in again,” he mumbled harshly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She gave a start as if he had struck her and ran in. But -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>Peter stepped noiselessly up to the open window. There -was light inside and he heard the sound of chairs being -moved, giggles and whispering. But it was impossible to -see anything. He carefully pushed aside the blind a little -with a pencil.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Between a box in the window and the corner of a yellow -wardrobe he could catch a glimpse over the end of the bed -of some curls of brown hair and a big, dark hand that -pressed against something soft and white.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter wanted to lift the blind higher but then a bottle -on the window-sill tipped over and an arm was stretched -out and put out the lamp.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He ran away as if possessed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now he lies stretched out on his bed, staring into the darkness. -He lies as still as a terrified insect feigning death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Fancy that it was Frida—the Frida who brought in his -shoes and clothes in the morning!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hitherto when Peter had looked at the girl he felt a -certain uneasiness in her presence—an uneasiness which -found expression chiefly in giggles and rudeness. But -nothing in the world would have induced him to touch -her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Brundin dared! For him nothing was forbidden -and nothing dangerous. He did everything he liked.</p> - -<p class='c009'>By contrast with his own helplessness Brundin became -a monster of power and impudence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The darkness became oppressive round the poor boy, he -suddenly felt the girl in his inmost being, in the very marrow -of his bone. But not her alone, that was the horror of -it! This man whom he dreaded, his pet horror was also -there. His feelings were a strange mixture of shame, lust, -fear, powerlessness, loneliness and grief. The very springs -of life were diverted and unclean from the beginning. Even -his first dreams of awakening were sullied by anxiety, and -by cowardly, curious hate.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The more tired Peter became the more distinctly did he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>feel how the chill of old Kristin’s hand passed through his -body. And Frida dissolved and disappeared. But Brundin -remained. He pursued Peter deep into the night’s sleep.</p> - -<p class='c009'>His sleep was like that of one in a besieged fortress, -where one hears the shots shattering bit by bit the walls -that save one from destruction.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, this was the story of Peter the Watch-dog.</p> - -<p class='c009'>We must not forget that this thin and anxious figure was -the embryo of the future coarse and brutal Peter the Boss.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span> - <h2 class='c005'>V<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>FEAR</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Excited and curious, Frida thrust her head into the -girls’ room:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If you please, Miss Hedvig,—you ought to let me -make your bed on a day like this.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig was leaning over her narrow bed with her black -hair full of curling papers. She would soon be fifteen -years old now. Her breasts were already filling out beneath -her bodice. Her lips were very red, and looked -almost skinless, in her long pale face.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No,” she said vehemently, “Kristin must come up.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>For some time past Hedvig had made her own bed. She -could not bear Frida to touch anything of hers. She seemed -to shiver as in a cold draught and her teeth began to chatter -as soon as the plump, laughing hussy came near her. But -the maid did not pay her back in the same coin. The excellent -Frida had no stiff-necked pride. With a mixture of -good nature and bad conscience she only became more servile. -“Kristin? very well.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Humming softly as usual she vanished down the stairs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura yawned, stretched herself lazily and shook her -fair hair. For all her laziness her arch eyes sparkled. She -was not in the least like her elder sister:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You really are mad, Hedvig,” she said, jumping out of -the bed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Kristin came puffing and muttering up the stairs. -Her old black frock had not shrunk as she herself had -done, and it seemed almost empty when she sank down on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>the edge of the bed. Her hands twitched and trembled as -if they had gone to sleep in her lap and were dreaming of -knitting needles.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, Hedvig, do you know your catechism, so that -we need not be ashamed of you?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura came up, stark naked, with a lather of soap on -her neck:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Know her catechism? when she is overflowing with it!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The old woman had no smile for this fresh, plump young -thing.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Are you not ashamed, child, to talk like that of God’s -word? And you won’t be ready in time either.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had done her hair and Kristin helped her on -with the white frock that reached almost to her ankles. She -fumbled a long time with the fastenings at the back, and -then she arranged the pleats with bony, trembling fingers.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Just like dressing a little bride,” she muttered. “And -truth it is that it is the best of bridegrooms you are meeting -today!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But behind Kristin’s back Hedvig stole a glance at herself -in the mirror. It was with a shy, unsteady look she -saw her own image. There was not a spark of fresh and -natural joy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now it was breakfast time. The other children, arrayed -in their poor best, were already sitting round the table. But -it was impossible to get Hedvig down. She remained in -the little girls’ room, and in the end Kristin had to take a -plate of porridge to her. Laura also soon came running -back. A new frock was anyhow a new frock. And this -was almost the beginning of long skirts and putting the -hair up. And perhaps she might even see Hedvig cry!</p> - -<p class='c009'>A carriage was heard crunching the gravel outside. Hedvig -jumped up. It was only old Hermansson. Yes! of -course he must come with them. She sank down on her -chair again. Laura was looking at her with big greedy -eyes, purring like a cat.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>“<i>He</i> is also coming,” she said suddenly in a sleek little -voice. “I heard him order the dog-cart.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig turned pale, just as one’s knuckles whiten when -one clenches one’s fist.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What <i>he</i>?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Mr. Brundin, of course.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Over Hedvig’s face spread an expression of anxious and -obstinate defiance which made it look almost old. Everybody -was waiting about for an opportunity to point her -out, everybody—</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What right has he to come. His place is among the -farmhands.” And with that she pushed Laura out of the -room and locked the door.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But then she stole to the window and stood there hidden -by the curtain.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the bailiff, Brundin, came driving in his little -dog-cart. He wore a fur coat, a top hat thrust back on -his head, and red dogskin gloves.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig devoured him with her eyes, just like a boy who -steals his first glass of strong drink, and is frightened when -it burns his throat. Then she caught sight of Peter. He -was standing some distance away with his coarse red hands -hanging out of his short sleeves. He pulled a face at the -bailiff and then looked furtively up at the girls’ room. -Hedvig ran away from the window, and sat down in a -corner fidgetting with her handkerchief. She looked as -if she had been struck.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now they were calling her. Now she <i>must</i> go down—“God! -if only it were over,” she thought. Stiffly and -hesitatingly, as if afraid to lose her balance, she greeted -old Hermansson. But she shot past the outstretched hand -of Brundin as if impelled by an invisible force, rushed out -to the carriage and crept into a corner. With her pale face -and her screwed-up eyes, she looked like some strange -creature of the twilight which had been forced out into the -merciless spring sunshine.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>Old Kristin had to run after her with her coat and hat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last the carriage was full and they started off. Out -in the yard in the sunshine it was still temptingly warm. -The lilac bushes had great green buds and the damp soil -of the flower beds was steaming round the bulbs. But in -the avenue they met the cold air from the dirty snow in the -ditches. And whenever a little cloud hid the sun for a -moment, they were back in winter again. It was one of -those treacherous and dangerous days when the cautious -and the wise, such as old Hermansson, prefer to keep their -fur coats on.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was some distance to the Church, which was situated -at a crossing of two roads, by the side of a plain which -was chequered by the black, brown, and green of fallow -land, pastures, and young rye.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Behind it rose a bare slope sprinkled with juniper trees -which resembled dark solid flames. The Church was very -old, without a tower. With its high black roof, its coarse -walls of rustic stone, it resembled a fortress, a barn, or a -cellar. And there was a musty smell beneath the vaulted -roof, for in spite of the big rusty stove, the cold winter -air still lingered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>With the troop of children close upon his heels old -Hermansson squeezed himself into the high narrow pew. -He did so the more calmly as the pew was at this moment -the most respectable place. But to Mr. Brundin the hard -wooden seat of duty at once seemed repugnant.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig stealthily joined the other children who were to -be confirmed, and sat down under the pulpit.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The clergyman was an old shaggy-bearded man with a -face like granite and reindeer-moss. This teacher of Our -Lord began the catechism in a dry, hard voice, as if he -were engaged in an interrogation on the four rules of -arithmetic rather than in partaking of the divine sacrament. -In this severe old Church, confronted by this severe old -man, the gospel seemed to be a vain mockery and punishment, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>the great punishment, the only reality. It was -strange to hear the young girlish voices answer his lifeless -voice as it spelled out, without a spark of fire, the long -record of judgment. It was as if Death had been sitting -on a stone and piped a tune on a dry bone, while frightened -Echo answered from the green shores of life. There was in -the quick, breathless repetition of the lesson every degree -of fear, from the side-glance which would avoid the whip, -down to the low trembling sigh that dies out in a sob. But -he who had ears to hear would nevertheless have been -startled by Hedvig’s voice. She knew her lesson and her -voice did not shake, but there was something unnaturally -tense, something of keenest anguish in her voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>What sort of a God was it whom Hedvig feared and -whom she was to receive today at the altar rails. Let us -pause to reflect on his origin and on his history, which is -much older than Hedvig’s first meeting with the clergyman. -From the beginning, he was a God from the Servants’ Hall -and he was an inheritance from Hedvig’s first horror, the -Bogey Man!</p> - -<p class='c009'>We never escape from our first impressions and experiences. -They bind us with the fibres of deep-seated roots -which we never draw up into the full light of consciousness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There Kristin, severe and foreboding, stood over the -little sugar thief whom she had caught: “Hedvig, if you -do not leave the sugar box alone, the Bogey Man will come -and take you.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>From the beginning these two experiences blended, and -each by unfortunate association strengthened the influence of -the other. The more frightened she grew of the Bogey -Man, the more she thought of the sugar box, and the more -she thought of the sugar box, the more frightened she grew -of the Bogey Man. At last he overshadowed her whole -existence. He was in the dark hole under the kitchen -stairs; in Kristin’s big black book; in the dull eyes of her -moribund apoplectic father, in the hawk-like face of her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>grandfather in there over the green sofa. The darker it -grew, the more dangerous the Bogey Man became. She ate -her supper slowly, slowly, in order to postpone the -inevitable. Alone and silent in her fear, she sat amongst -her sisters and brothers who romped and struggled round -about her. Then they were driven to bed. “Please, Kristin, -don’t pull down the blind. Dear Kristin, please leave the -lamp a little longer.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was no use. In vain she pulled the bedclothes over -her head, the Bogey Man was still there, the blackest thing -in the darkness. And he came sneaking into her dreams -and groped with his shadow hands about her little trembling -heart so that she often awoke with a loud shriek in the -middle of the night.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In her terror, Hedvig attached herself more and more -closely to old Kristin, who knew all about all these -ominous mysteries. And thus it came about that God -succeeded to the Bogey Man.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But this intimacy during the long hours of twilight with -an old, tired, and harried creature who had not the sense to -spare tender ears, was dangerous. In everyday life Kristin’s -God was a mean and nagging kitchen-God whose chief -business was to punish the maids’ laziness and pilfering. -But he had also his greater and more threatening moods -when he emerged from his past in a small soldiers’ cottage -in a mighty Småland forest in order to punish incendiaries -and murderers and to look after brownies and trolls. When -on Sunday evenings Kristin sat reading aloud from the Old -Testament her voice would assume an expression of cruel -lamentation, something submissively threatening which -gripped Hedvig with a deep awe of the people through the -dim and distant ages.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the dark, Hedvig grew frightened of God. Not even -school when it began with its monotonous and mechanical -cramming, not even the alleviating joys of companionship, -could kill her fear. Amidst the noise of the class-room -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>she sat alone in communion with both the great and the -dangerous. Before she could read properly, she spelled -out greedily and eagerly the tale of the fall of man and the -ten commandments. Especially the seventh commandment -made a deep impression on her. Here was the terrible fascination -of the unknown. By and by she began to read the -Bible for herself. There was much to brood over, much -that nourished her fears, which now began to undergo -strange transformation. She could sit for hours thinking of -such expressions as “circumcision,” “menstruation,” then -she imagined she bore a son. Her gaze fastened on passages -concerning the sin of fornication, the great Babylonian -harlot, Absolom’s exploits on the roof of the house -with King David’s concubines.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The darkness enclosing Hedvig’s God began to be -oppressive. His too early threats provoked the very sins -which he intended to prevent. She brooded over evil till -at last it began to stir in her blood. Her ever present fear -developed into stealthy, premature curiosity. It was no -longer anything so white and innocent as sugar that Hedvig -now stole. No! In the forbidden box now lay worm -eaten, half rotten fruit fallen from the tree of knowledge -of good and evil. But there was still the same fatal and -even more intimate association of ideas as in the case of -the sugar and the Bogey Man.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Soon Hedvig’s curiosity found something different from -the shadowy figures of the old rat-eaten family Bible to -brood over and to spy out, namely, the bailiff and Frida.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That sultry night when Peter caught her peeping under -the blind into Brundin’s window had been a fateful night -in her life. The discovery of the secret of the bailiff’s -wing was the greatest and most dangerous discovery she had -yet made. Hot and cold by turns, tempted, frightened, -caught in the act, she had crept to bed. Her soul was outraged. -Night and day the memory of that scene remained -with her. She was afraid of Peter, disgusted with Frida, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>but could not get the man out of her thoughts. It was like -an obsession. She avoided him, scarcely greeted him, could -not for anything in the world look him in the face. But -secretly she devoured him with her eyes. His bold, wicked -self-assurance had some inexpressible allurement for her. -She found herself incessantly following this sinner, and -then fled, frightened and ashamed, to her bed. But as -she had shaped her God out of fear, he had no pity and -could not help her. This girlish love might have been the -means of leading her out into the fresh air if it had not been -of such a strange and stunted kind. As it was, it only -threw her back more and more upon herself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Such was the Hedvig who now knelt by the altar rails -and received the bread and the wine from the hand of the -old clergyman. She had grown up in the shadow of her -own dreams like one of those long white shoots that grew -down in the deep darkness. Not one poor single little bud -of her being had been able to open out in the clear sunshine -of the busy, living world. In a pew behind sat the genteel -farmer, Brundin, with his pert military moustache, not for -a moment suspecting that he was a terrible Behemoth, sucking -the nourishment out of a poor little woman’s soul.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Communion was over. The girls rose with tear-stained -faces and walked slowly, hesitatingly, down the aisle. Hedvig -was pale and dry-eyed. Outside it had suddenly begun -to snow, wet ice-cold snow, and it was pathetic to see her -as she stood amongst these thinly clad, shivering children, -slowly and awkwardly bidding each other good-bye, and -looking like butterflies that have left their chrysalis too -soon and have no flowers to rest on. The girl from Selambshof -was better dressed than the poor peasant girls. -And she was the prettiest of them too. But she looked -more forlorn and colder than the poor lonely little snow-drops -that shivered amongst the snowflakes on a poor man’s -grave behind her.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>Old Hermansson had something to say to the Vicar. -Brundin came up to Hedvig and made his compliments.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, Hedvig, that went off splendidly! Now you are -a big grown-up lady and I suppose I must call you Miss -Hedvig. But we must not let it snow any longer on your -white hat.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He led her to the carriage which was waiting with the -hood up, helped her in and fastened the apron. Hedvig -drew back as if his touch had scorched her. When he had -gone she sat there trembling and with chattering teeth. -Will he drive before or after us, she thought. If he drives -before us, I can sit and look at him the whole time. But -when her guardian at last arrived and they started with -Brundin in front, she stared obstinately at a hole in the -apron, because she was afraid of God.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Both old Hermansson and Brundin were to stay for dinner. -A gloomy snow light filled the dining-room and there -was a fire burning, just as in mid-winter. Hedvig sat -stiff and silent in the place of honour, and scarcely tasted -the food. Then her guardian solemnly drew forth a present -from his coat pocket. It was a little watch with Hedvig’s -initials engraved on it. He made a short admonitory -speech before giving it to her and hoped that she would -learn to make the same good use of time as he had done -when he was young. He even finished with a little verse:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“May this watch the right time tell</div> - <div class='line'>To a little girl who works right well.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c003'>Hedvig sat fidgetting on her chair with downcast eyes, as -if she were being scolded. It was with difficulty that she -stood up and returned thanks for the gift with a stiff curtsey.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now it was Brundin’s turn to put his hand in his -pocket. He pulled out a red case, opened the lid with a -snap and, bowing gallantly, handed her a narrow gold -brooch.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>“Well, Miss Hedvig, I also take the liberty of offering a -simple little gift. Please accept it, Miss Hedvig. Hall-marked!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig blanched. Her glass trembled against the edge -of her plate as she set it down. Her dark eyes fastened, -wide-open with fright, on a spot on the wall opposite. She -stretched out her hand like a blind man and groped for the -case. But she stopped half way. She had suddenly caught -sight of Frida, who, with a bottle of port in one hand and a -napkin in the other, forgot her duties and bent over Brundin’s -shoulder to stare greedily at the glittering ornament. -Hedvig’s voice, unnaturally tense, suddenly cut the silence:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I don’t want the brooch—give it to ... to Frida -instead.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She covered her face with her hands and ran upstairs and -threw herself on her bed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Nobody round the table said anything. Frida tittered a -little. Then she stood crimson and fidgetted for a moment -before she could pull herself together and go out. Brundin -muttered something that sounded like a curse, and sat -silently playing with his little fair moustache, looking half -embarrassed and half self-satisfied. Peter almost collapsed -with excitement.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now Brundin will be kicked out, he thought, and an -agreeable, cold shiver passed through his bones. Old -Hermansson had become rigid, with his spoon half way between -his mouth and his plate and looking very upset. At -last Laura’s voice broke the spell:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hedvig is mad,” she said and jumped up as she sat on -her chair, for she had a curious trick of being able to -jump whilst sitting.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There now, she is spoiling everything,” thought Peter, -and gave her a pinch under the table. Quite right, old -Hermansson did not seize Brundin by the collar and kick -him out. Instead he rose with slow dignity, and took up -the case and the brooch:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>“I will teach this ill-bred girl how to receive a well-meant -gift,” he said, with an air that promised full amends -to Brundin. Then he stalked off after Hedvig.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He found her lying full length on her bed in her white -frock, which looked like a shroud. She lay there dry-eyed -staring up at the ceiling.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now put this brooch in your frock, Hedvig, and go -down and say thank you nicely,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A shiver passed through her and the skin on her thin -arms looked like goose flesh.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Please, please, leave me alone,” she begged.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Put the brooch on at once!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, no, it is sinful,” she stammered and turned her -face to the wall.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then old Hermansson thought he ought not to insist -any longer. He left the case on the table beside the bed -and went downstairs again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The poor child has had a trying day today,” he said -to the bailiff. “She seems strangely upset. I thought I -ought to let her put off her apologies.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he returned to his tart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But up in her room Hedvig lay with the red case on her -breast. Suddenly she tore out the brooch and stuck the -pin deep into her left hand. Then she sucked drop after -drop of the slowly oozing blood.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span> - <h2 class='c005'>VI<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE TWO FAIR HEADS</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>The terrace at Selambshof was adorned with two small -ship’s-guns on gun-carriages of decayed oak. They -were spiked with pine-needles and twigs, and it was -long since a birthday salute had been fired with them. -Laura sat astride of one of these, swinging her legs lazily -and catching maple-blossoms in her hat. It was a fine -day in the beginning of June, and with each breeze there -rained down over the old cannon golden green maple blossoms, -and the pools glistened after the night’s rain.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sometimes it almost looked as if an idyl could exist -even in the presence of the sham Gothic of Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The sun gently warmed the fair down on Laura’s neck. -She kept behind the house today, because she had put up -her hair for the first time, though only for fun, of course. -She thought it would be jolly to see what sort of a face -Herman would make. He would probably appear in the -avenue soon.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Otherwise it was rather empty at Selambshof this summer. -Peter was laid up with measles. And there was not -even Hedvig to quarrel with. She had been sent away to -an old aunt in Sala. Usually she had sat and sulked in a -corner since the day when she behaved so idiotically to -Brundin. It was impossible to get her down into the garden, -for she was frightened to approach the bailiff’s quarters. -And when into the bargain old Kristin died she -became so refractory that old Hermansson had to send her -away.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Not that Laura understood the reason. But when she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>sat lonely like this and looked at the shadows of the leaves -dancing and jumping about and overtaking each other -down on the gravel, it amused her to think of that story. -And then suddenly Laura thought of Herman again. Why -was he really so anxious to be alone with her lately? -Herman was not like his old self, no—there was something -strange about him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There he was already in the avenue!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, there was Herman Hermansson coming up, with his -schoolcap on the back of his head and swinging a stick. -He tried to look quite unconcerned and indifferent. But -he did not succeed, because secretly he stole anxious glances -on all sides, and even his whistle sounded somehow shy, -humble and supplicating.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s little woman’s heart beat happily and she felt a -gay and mischievous wish to play a little with old Hermansson’s -tall, fine boy. So she hurried into the kitchen before -he had caught sight of her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There sat Miss Isaksson, the new housekeeper. She was -tall, pale, and thin, and she held the coffee grinder in one -hand and a fat novel in the other. And she ground and -read and nodded her head sadly to herself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura peeped out of the window.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do they get married?” she giggled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I won’t look at the end,” sighed Miss Isaksson, “but it -is a sad book, so they will probably both die.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now Herman was on the terrace. He glanced shyly -round him and had a guilty look. Laura was enjoying herself -and did not hurry. She had a vague feeling of superiority -over both Herman and poor, thin Miss Isaksson. At -last she was pleased to emerge on the steps with an air of -marked indifference and boredom.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman jumped up as if someone had commanded “attention!” -He certainly did not dare to make any comment -on Laura’s having put her hair up, for that only increased -his shyness and diffidence.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>“Will you come fishing with me for a bit, Laura?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What! fishing?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do, please, only for a short time.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, perhaps I will, if Stellan comes too.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was always the same, Stellan had to be there too, and -so Herman was forced against his will to go and persuade -that young lordling, who lay in a tattered old hammock in -the park, staring at his toes, to join them. Only after a -long discussion did he lazily get out of the hammock.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last three floats bobbed about on the half-clear, glittering, -greenish June water which can look so warm and inviting -from the shore and is yet so icy cold when you venture -in.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had the first bite.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What rotten fish! Not worth while getting dirty for!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was in a bad temper. It irritated him that Herman -could find any pleasure in putting on worms for that fat -Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now it was Herman’s turn. His float dived deep down -without his noticing it; he was so absorbed in Laura. And -when at last he awoke he pulled so violently that the roach -got free and the hook caught in Laura’s hat. Then Laura -scolded him and Stellan shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Were you hoarse yesterday, Herman?” he said in a cold, -mocking voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This formula had a crushing effect. Once when Herman -had been reproved because he did not know his history -lesson he had stood up and said: “Please sir, I was so -hoarse yesterday that I could not learn my lesson.” Since -then he was always asked the unfortunate question: -“Were you hoarse yesterday, Herman?” And each time -Laura laughed heartily. It was a cause of inexpressible -suffering to his proud, chivalrous nature. Herman tried -to keep up an appearance of gay indifference and to join -in the laugh of these cruel companions. But his was a -poor, weak mockery of a laugh.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>They were already thoroughly tired of fishing and began -to jump about on the stones and the roots of the alder trees -along the shore. This year’s reeds were just beginning to -come up between the yellow stalks of last year’s, the dragon -flies flew past like blue, silken threads in a current of air, -and dark, green beetles hovered up and down like little -balls supported by an invisible force. The day was almost -too warm and fine. They could not make up their minds -to do anything—they only teased each other and had their -little quarrels. Now they are amongst the cows in the -Hökar meadow, and Herman catches sight of a starling -hopping between the hind legs of the bell-cow and incessantly -flying up to catch a fly on its udders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Look at that starling, Laura!” he cried, proud of the -interesting observation he had made. “Look at that starling, -he is friendly with the cow.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That’s nothing compared with Egypt,” snapped Stellan. -“There the birds come and pick the teeth of the crocodiles. -And they keep their mouths quite still. But of course, -you haven’t heard of that.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>No, Herman had not heard of that, so probably he had -been hoarse again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Laura had an idea. She drew her brother aside.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I say, Stellan, shall we get Herman to climb the -oak?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was an enormous oak growing on a green hillock by -the roadside, just where the avenue ended.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>They sat down on a stone in the shade. Stellan looked -up at the tree with the eyes of an expert.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I say, Herman, that is an awfully difficult tree.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Not so very. If it weren’t so hot....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, the first bit is easy. I can see that too—but further -up there is a long bit without branches.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Nonsense. You can swing yourself up. If it weren’t -so warm....”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>“Of course—you can brag—but you daren’t do it,” scoffed -Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Daren’t I?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, you daren’t.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman jumped up, red in the face, and tore off his -coat. At last he had a chance of shining, and of dazzling -the cruel one by a knightly deed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’ll show you whether I dare!” he cried.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then he began to climb. It really was a difficult -tree. His fingers were already bleeding and, ritsch! he -tore one of his shirt sleeves. For a moment he was on the -point of falling down. The perspiration stood out on his -forehead and his heart beat fast. But he set his teeth and -struggled on. <i>She</i> was standing down there admiring him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now he had reached the very top swaying in the wind. -Breathless he pushed away a branch in order to be seen -and to enjoy his triumph.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But the stone was empty. Nobody was visible.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Laura,” he called, “Laura, do you see that I was not -afraid?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>No answer. Down below everything was green, silent -and empty. Above, abandoned, covered with dirt from -the wet bark, Herman was sitting up among the whispering, -swaying masses of leaves. His hands were aching, and he -had an unpleasant sensation in his stomach. Most of all -he would like to throw himself down and break his neck -in order to punish a hard and unfeeling world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He resisted this temptation, however, and climbed down -with moderate care; he put on his coat and walked home -in order to grind at the subjects in which he had failed in -his examination last spring. You could see even by his -back that he was deeply hurt and had nothing left but -duty to live for.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Laura stepped out from behind one of the trees in -the avenue where she had been hiding with Stellan. She -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>smiled and danced and her voice rang out clear and mocking -in the mellow summer air:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Were you hoarse yesterday, Herman? Were you -hoarse yesterday?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman did not answer. Only his back stiffened still -more and he took still longer steps. And then he disappeared -behind the willows by the wash house.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The next day Laura again sat astride the gun catching -maple blossoms in her hat and looking down the avenue -now and then, ready to begin the jolly game over again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But that was not to be. Herman did not come. It was -almost dinner time and still Herman did not come. “I -see, he is sulking,” thought Laura. “Well, let him!” -And with her nose in the air she hopped away to the lean -Miss Isaksson and borrowed a big novel.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stellan was lying in the hammock like a fish in a -net and yawned and became more and more sleepy and -bad-tempered. At last he climbed out, however, opened -the gate with a kick, without taking his hands out of his -pockets, and slipped down to the jetty where the washing -and rinsing was done, and where Selambshof’s rotten old -rowing boat lay hopelessly water-logged and simply could -not be made water tight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What an establishment this Selambshof! What a dilapidated, -dull, impossible, old place!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And just at this moment the special steamer with the -usual Stonehill party for the summer arrived. He could -see little Percy in white sailor trousers walking along the -pier.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stonehill lay on the other shore opposite Selambshof. -It was an awfully fine place with a big globe mirror and -white plaster statues and coloured glass windows round -the verandahs, as was the fashion in the villas of the well-to-do -at that time. And there were temples and hothouses -with peaches and grapes, for Percy’s mother was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>awfully rich. His father had got his money by smuggling -during the war in America. But now he was dead.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan kicked angrily at what was left above water of -the old rowing boat. How could he get across to Stonehill -now?</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was only last summer that he had made the acquaintance -of the “china doll.” He called Percy Hill “china -doll” because he looked so brittle and so fine. That summer -he had also had plenty of fun on the lake with Manne -von Strelert at Kolsnäs, for Manne never wanted to be at -home because his tutor was there. Stellan thought this -was a pity, because there was nothing he admired so much -as the horses at Kolsnäs. But Manne was so obstinate! -And there was added spice in their excursions on the lake -since they had noticed the boy in white stealing behind the -rose hedge and the fine, high fence at Stonehill, and gazing -enviously at them. In order to tease him they used to -hover about the Stonehill landing stage. One day Manne -called out:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Won’t you come out on the lake with us?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’m not allowed.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Come out on the landing stage, then.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Mother is afraid I might tumble in.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What have you got a sailor’s suit on for, then?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The boy could not answer. He was a prisoner of the -roses. He was a poor little land sailor, and the two sunburnt -sailors jeered at him mercilessly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You’re a beastly coward,” called Manne. “I have ridden -the legs off a horse and I have thrashed my tutor. You -are a beastly coward.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the boy in white stepped out on to the stage.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My name is Percy,” he said with a wan, little smile, -“and I am not a coward.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he climbed into Stellan’s boat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now, let us see who can splash the other most!” cried -Manne, and Percy was wet through at once.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>“Now you will be spanked when you get home.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy’s face looked troubled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, but I shall have to go to bed. And then the doctor -will come, of course.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>At this stage in their acquaintance Stellan suddenly -checked Manne’s arrogance and changed his tactics. He -had suddenly come to think of all the fine things visible -through the railings round Stonehill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Take off your coat and spread it out on the seat and it -will soon dry,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy obeyed. After a moment’s reflection Stellan continued, -“So you never get a thrashing?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No,” said Percy with something of a sigh.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Must you go without your dinner, then?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Without dinner?” asked Percy astonished, “they stuff me -with food.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>This somehow appealed to Stellan.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Perhaps you are allowed to eat as much as you like in -the hothouses,” he mumbled, almost shyly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Of course,” answered Percy with indifference.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“May I come with you some time?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, come tomorrow, both of you, and we’ll have fruit -juice and biscuits first, and then go into the hothouses.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was in this way Stellan penetrated beyond the high, -white fence round Stonehill. From the beginning he tried -to imitate the aristocratic indifference of the “china doll” -to all the good things to eat. Except, of course, when he -thought nobody was looking, and then he gobbled up all he -could. Worldly wisdom and fine manners are all very well, -but we are only human after all....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, all this had happened the year before. Now he was -cut off from all that splendour, because of the rotten old -boat, and the gardener’s tarred punt he was ashamed to go -in.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was already walking away from the pier, where -the water glittered and beat so mockingly against the wet -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>boards, when it suddenly struck him that at Ekbacken old -Hermansson had a smart little craft that was decorated every -Sunday with a fine display of streamers in the stem, and -a flag in the stern.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I was beastly stupid, yesterday,” he thought, “beastly -stupid,” and his usual expression, the cool, half-sneer -returned.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan stole cautiously across the park so as not to be -seen or have Laura on his heels. From the bend in the avenue -he got a good view of Ekbacken. And he stopped a -moment, impressed by the sight. It seemed as if he were -looking at Ekbacken for the first time. An expression of -amazing cunning came into Stellan’s face, as he passed in -through the red wooden gateway. Already his thoughts -travelled far, far beyond to old Hermansson’s fine, little -boat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Ekbacken Sawmill and Shipyard was a fine, old business -that ran itself. Trustworthy, leisurely, old workers stalked -about on the timber rafts inside the boom, and there were -steady, old, grey sailors who had sailed in all the seas of -the world and were caulking old brigs and barges. And -inside in the office sat the book-keeper Lundbom, with eyeglasses -and a leather shade, writing out bills to a lot of -good and safe customers, who paid in cash and not with -miserable acceptances. There also sat old Hermansson -reading his paper. There was such a blessed peace that he -had smoked half his cigar and the ash was still on it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He looked up at Stellan with an expression of fatherly -benevolence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning, my dear boy. You are looking for -Herman, I suppose, but he is at his lessons now. Yes, that’s -what happens when you flunk. Come along now, and let -us have a talk.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan asked for nothing better. They went over to -the house in a pretty oak wood just by the road to town. -On the other side spread soft, billowing, green fields set -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>with old, brown barns. This land also belonged to Ekbacken, -but was let to tobacco growers. On the town side the -estate was sheltered by some stony hillocks with a few pines -here and there, behind which, however, some high, bare -walls had entirely shot up and threatened to destroy the -idyl.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The house itself was an old, but well-preserved one story -house, long and low, where everything from the door -handles to the brass doors of the Marieberg earthenware -stoves was radiantly clean and polished.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why have I not been to Ekbacken more often?” thought -Stellan.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Hermansson talked about school and praised Herman -because he had worked hard, which praise the young man -listened to with an open countenance. It opened up further -vistas to him. Cleverly he manœuvred the conversation in -the direction he wanted. School and school friends, of -course! There was Manne at Kolsnäs. He was a jolly -decent fellow. And his father, who was a chamberlain to -the King, could come and go at court just as he pleased. -And they had footmen and horses and everything else. It -really was strange that Herman did not see more of Manne. -Manne liked Herman awfully. He had told Stellan so—and -fancy what fun it would be for Manne to look at all -the boats in the yard. And Percy Hill. Didn’t Mr. Hermansson -know him and how tremendously rich he was. -And Percy was so awfully generous and kind and obedient. -Mr. Hermansson would certainly like him....</p> - -<p class='c009'>It became clearer and clearer to Stellan. It was as if he -could look straight through old Hermansson and discover -his little vanity. Victory seemed already secure, when at -last he got out his real purpose. It would soon be his birthday. -He had been so often in Manne’s and Percy’s houses -that he was really ashamed and wanted most awfully to invite -them to something in return. But he could not do so at -home, as Mr. Hermansson would understand. There was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>poor father who was nothing for strangers to look at. -And besides, Peter had measles. So wouldn’t it be nice if -Mr. Hermansson would be so awfully kind as to let him -have a little party here at Ekbacken, where everything was -so fine and elegant. And as to the cost, well, his mother -had left Stellan something and he might use that.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Nonsense, my boy,” beamed old Hermansson, “I will -give a little dinner for you with pleasure.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Stellan rushed into Herman and slapped him on the -back:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I say, you’re not angry still, are you? We’ll stick together—what?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman, in the loneliness of his heart, was not the one -to reject a word of reconciliation.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Next day they rigged out old Hermansson’s little lugger. -For many years it had done nothing but lie by the pier -and look smart, for old Hermansson was rather afraid of -the lake, even though he was owner of a shipyard. But -now, as I have already mentioned, the boat was fitted out. -It was also the result of Stellan’s diabolical powers of persuasion -that the boys were permitted to sail the boat. -Herman had never dreamt of such happiness. They -started at once for Stonehill and Kolsnäs and conveyed -the invitation for the birthday party at Ekbacken.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>At home at Selambshof Laura sank into ever deeper and -deeper reflections. Herman no longer came up the avenue. -And Stellan was also away most of the time. Our young -lady felt lonely and very bored. Whenever she did get hold -of Stellan he only shrugged his shoulders and looked contemptuous. -And he always managed to get away without -her discovering where he went.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But one fine day when she was sitting on the landing -stage, there came a smart, white sailing boat gliding past. -At the foresail-sheet sat Herman. But astern Stellan was -lounging like a prince, his head against the tiller and his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>feet up against the gunwale. When he caught sight of -Laura on the landing stage he put about so that Herman -should not notice her. And Laura was so dumbfounded and -furious that she did not call out to them. She roamed -about on the shore and felt deserted, cheated of her fun. -To crown all she saw Stellan try on an absolutely new, -black suit with long trousers which had been sent from town.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What are you getting a new suit for?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’m giving a dinner,” said Stellan carelessly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Where? Here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No! At Herman’s. My birthday’s coming.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I suppose I am to come too?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, it’s a men’s dinner, you see, ta-ta!” With that he -pushed Laura out of the room. The new suit was the logical -result of Stellan’s diplomacy. Hang it all, you can’t very -well appear in anything when you have such smart guests.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Laura threw herself down on her bed and stared at -the ceiling. She did not cry—but she wanted to tear her -face. “How stupid I have been,” she thought, “goodness, -how stupid I have been!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Next morning she got up early. It was not yet nine -o’clock when she came dancing into her guardian’s room -at Ekbacken as he sat shaving with deliberate and methodical -dignity. She shone like a little sunbeam, and had a -bunch of the brightest wild flowers in her hand. Then she -ran about for a vase and placed it between the washbasin -and the soap dish, so that nobody could mistake the object -of her attention.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How awfully good of you, uncle, to give a dinner for -Stellan.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“And of course, you would love to come,” muttered her -guardian through the lather.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Rather, as it is Stellan’s birthday. But there are to be -only boys?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, but we ought to have a hostess, even though it is -a men’s dinner.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>Laura suddenly grew serious, terribly serious.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, but my old red frock is worn out, and besides the -sleeves are too short.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But supposing you came to town with me one day and -bought a new frock....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura jumped up in his lap and kissed him in the middle -of the lather:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, thank you, dear darling. But don’t tell Stellan and -Herman!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus it came about that when at last that birthday dinner -came off and the boys had already been down to look at -the sawmill and had been climbing in the shrouds of the -old brigs and had been chatting with the jolly old tars—who -should be standing on the front steps to receive them -like an amiable hostess but Laura, dressed in a brand new -silk frock, almost down to her ankles and full of bows and -frills.</p> - -<p class='c009'>For a moment Stellan frowned, but his face soon lit up -with involuntary approval. At least one didn’t need to feel -ashamed of the girl.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman grew quite red in the face and was unable -to get out a sound, but stole in without daring to look at -her. She was altogether too lovely.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was quite a smart dinner. Old Hermansson offered -wine and even made a little speech for the young people. -Speechmaking was his weakness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>While the others were going out into the garden for -coffee, Laura seized the opportunity and gave Herman a -kiss behind a door—a swift, fugitive, little kiss on the -cheek. But for Herman it was as if the doors of Paradise -had been suddenly flung open. He sat there mute amidst -the chatter and laughter, and revelled in the wonderful -thought that the girl in the silk frock, the beautiful Laura, -had kissed him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Laura also paused in drinking her coffee and munching -her sweets and remembered how his cheek had burnt -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>her lips. It really was rather pleasant to kiss. Neither -did it cost anything—possibly just the contrary....</p> - -<p class='c009'>They carefully avoided speaking to each other and they -could not for the world have looked each other in the eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After this Stellan and Laura detached themselves more -and more from their brothers and sisters and came more -and more frequently to Herman’s house. They both felt -that the sombre and shabby Selambshof was not their -chosen field. No! Ekbacken was quite different—here -you escaped the sight of your father sitting about in his -dull fashion. From here intercourse with Stonehill and -Kolsnäs was easiest. Here, with their guardian, they had -the exciting and pleasurable feeling of being at the -heart of things. They felt already, those two fair heads, -that it was Ekbacken that was to be their stepping stone -to success in the world.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span> - <h2 class='c005'>VII<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>BRUNDIN’S DOWNFALL</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>It had been a long autumn. With grey creeping mists -and ankle-deep slush, November had drawn a close -ring round Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was alone in the day time. As he had failed again -in his examination, he had had to leave school and it was -not yet decided what he was going to do. But time passed -quickly all the same, for recently he had lots of things -to attend to.</p> - -<p class='c009'>For example, the great pig-slaughter. Since six o’clock -this morning he had been strolling about in the dark yard -and as soon as dawn came he was down by the pig-sty -behind the cowshed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The cowherd came trailing one poor pig after another. -Then they were raised on to the slaughter block and instantly -Anders, the stable man, stuck them in the neck so -that the blood spurted out. The bailiff was there himself, -and scratched the pigs’ backs with his stick and chatted in -friendly tones to them before execution. But old Kristin -was no longer there with the pail to collect the blood. As -long as she kept going, she had taken part in the slaughter -of the pigs. Silent and solemn she used to stand -there bent over her pail, stirring the blood as did the rest -of the tribe in days of old at the great winter sacrifice. -There was a strange emptiness after her. But the crows -were still here. Flocks of them settled in the high bare -lime tree and their croaking seemed like the voice of the -grey November day. Now and then they flew for a moment -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>down towards the steaming hot tripe as if to give a reminder -of their ancient rights.</p> - -<p class='c009'>I-i-i-i! squeaked a pig again, and the crows rose for a -moment as if from the pressure of the cry. But Peter -kept near the corner of the cowshed the whole time; he -came no nearer, and Brundin thought he was frightened:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Come and help us. What kind of a country lad are -you to be frightened of the killing?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But the bailiff was mistaken. Peter was not at all frightened -because the pigs were squeaking. He was only -afraid that they were squeaking for Brundin’s benefit and -not for his own and Selambshof’s. He stood anyhow sufficiently -near to hear what was called out at the weighing -machine, and if you looked carefully you could see that -his lips moved the whole time. He stood there counting -and muttering the figures in an undertone in order to -get them to stick in his memory. For Peter had really a -great deal in his memory. It was not the first time he had -stood aside like this and counted and measured. But then -he also knew to a nicety how much grain, potatoes, milk -and butter had been driven into town during the whole -autumn. What cunning, what tricks and pretences, what -long patient watches had not been necessary to keep count -of all this. No, Peter was not troubled for the pigs’ sakes. -There was good reason to look out for Peter the Watch-dog -nowadays. He no more looked as if he was afraid of a -beating. And he had become bigger of body and deeper -of voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Of course Peter was still afraid of Brundin. But his -terror no longer rose up like a mountain in front of him. -Brundin’s great and wonderful power had already been -dealt the first blow. That was when the mighty Brundin -had agreed without protest to Frida’s being dismissed. -Peter had brooded for days over this. And as he pondered -he observed that Brundin did not reach into the clouds. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>And his great fear shrank up exquisitely into a little heap -of envy, anxiety and angry suspicion.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter did not go to his guardian, because it was he who -had placed Brundin in authority. Perhaps he was even -in league with the dangerous fellow. Imagine suspecting -old Hermansson! Ignorance is either very credulous or -very suspicious. In this case it was suspicious. And besides -Peter the Watch-dog was one of those who prefer -hunting alone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The pig sticking was finished. The November day was -silent and grey as before.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was still standing on his stone by the corner of -the cowshed. Round him the filth resembled a bog and -Brundin came splashing through it. He no longer looked -so good-tempered. His little fairy moustache curled contemptuously -at the rain, the mud, the smell of manure, and -the whole of the November atmosphere. He stopped just -in front of Peter, rocking on his heels and reflecting:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, Anders, get the dog-cart ready. I am going to -town after dinner after all.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter started. Brundin going into town! Here was an -opportunity. He leaped after the bailiff through the mud. -Outside the bailiff’s quarters he even sidled up to the object -of his fear. And he was still like a great mountain -when you came near him—a high mountain with mocking -superior airs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I just wanted to come in and glance at the map for a -moment,” muttered Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Brundin hummed a little tune and good-humouredly led -the boy into the office which lay to the right of the entrance -hall in the bailiff’s wing.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now Peter was actually in the lion’s den. The yellow -cracked old plan of Selambshof hung over the sofa. -For a long while Peter was tremendously interested in it. -Then he began to glance round to right and left, and make -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>strange trampling movements to and fro like a bear on a -hot plate. Indeed he was not exactly beautiful to look at, -but deserved perhaps a certain admiration. As a matter -of fact he required a great deal of self-control to remain -in Brundin’s room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter looked for the accounts books of the estate. From -outside he had often stolen a glance at them where they -were lying on the writing desk. But now they were not -there. They could not be anywhere else but in the big -brown cupboard between the windows.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The key was in the lock.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sat down on the sofa and turned over the pages -of a price list. Brundin lit his pipe, looked over his -papers and did not seem to be in a hurry. Peter perspired -more and more.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last the bailiff had to leave the room for a moment. -Instantly Peter jumped up and took the key out of the -cupboard. And he did more than that—he lifted off the -hooks of one window, both the inner and the outer—Then -another idea seized him: he took up another key -from amongst the rubbish on the writing desk and pushed -it into the keyhole of the cupboard so that nothing should -be noticed. He was no fool.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now the cracked old dinner gong sounded and with his -booty in his damp hands, Peter stole out of the lion’s den.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After dinner came the first disappointment. The dog-cart -was never brought out, for Brundin received some -Saturday-guests and put off his journey to town until -Sunday. Peter had got to wait—a difficult task. He could -not stay at home. He felt so brittle and queer from the -strain that he scarcely dared to put his foot down on the -ground and still he had to go on walking and walking. -Now he had already reached town and once there he of -course made for the hay market. Shivering, and with a -queer trembling in the pit of his stomach he stood in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>Saturday crush, amidst sacks of potatoes and sides of -beef, staring at a big sign on a low yellow house with a -tiled roof:</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='large'>AXEL BRUNDIN & CO.</span></div> - <div class='c000'>Cereals, grain, and vegetables.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c003'>It was not the first time Peter had stood there spying. -He felt a need, as it were, to assure himself all the time -that the shop was still there. A fat old man usually -stood in the doorway with his thumbs stuck in the armholes -of his waistcoat. He was Brundin’s brother. He knew -him from the crayfish party. Most of the produce of Selambshof -went to him. And Peter had an intuition that -here lay the solution of some of the problems that worried -him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Just fancy if only he could send in a policeman to take -a big bag of money from that fat old rascal! Slowly -Peter the Watch-dog sauntered homewards in the dark and -raw November night.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He awoke very early on Sunday morning. First he examined -the office window. Yes, the hooks were still unfastened. -Then he might just slip down to the outhouses -for a little. There had been frost during the night and -there were a few light snowflakes in the air. Peter crept -into the barn through a broken shutter. On the ground -floor the pig carcases gleamed with a pale light in the deep -twilight. He touched the hard cold fat. He felt how -the pigs hung helpless there. And once more he had -a frantic sense of his duty to defend them against Brundin. -He promised them that they had not died in vain.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter climbed to the next floor. Here the grain -lay about in big heaps on the floor. He sat down and -let the wheat run through his fingers. Usually it is pleasant -to sit in a granary and let the cool, round, fragrant -grains of corn run softly through the fingers. It makes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>one think of summer and sunshine and the wide green fields.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter, poor boy, had no such spacious feelings of -the prospective farmer. Everything had been spoilt for -him by Brundin. The gifts of the soil were poisoned for -him by a premature greedy anxiety.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At breakfast Peter was very silent. He did not fight -with his brothers and sisters, but of his own free will sat -down next to his father, even though it was not his turn. -Today was a great day and he tried to propitiate the Gods -by this sacrifice. You must neglect nothing if you would -succeed. He also stole to Church afterwards in order to -be quite on the safe side. Straight as a poker he sat there -trying to be really attentive, though of course he only -listened to his own thoughts. Peter had a long intimate -conversation with his God. And what kind of God had -Peter the Watch-dog? He was related to his sister Hedvig’s -God. Both had grown out of a common parentage. Old -Kristin’s servants’ God. Both had drawn their nourishment -from the terrors of those years of helplessness. But, whilst -Hedvig’s God had been reared on the fear of desire and -of sex, Peter’s God was from the first an economic potentate, -who severely punished torn clothes and broken money-boxes, -and he had gradually developed into a protector -of the rights of property with the more specific function -of making the bailiff of Selambshof smart. But Peter -was afraid that God might not have had time to consider -the matter properly and therefore he gave him in all humility -a number of delicate little hints as to the most suitable -way of dealing with Brundin.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes! such was Peter Selamb’s communion with God on -this day of great expectations—which, however, became a -day of disappointment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last evening came. The bailiff had already driven off -to town and the yard was in darkness. Then Peter crept -out in order to steal back Selambshof from Brundin. -If only he could get a glance at that armful of big blue -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>books all would be clear. His house-breaking was quite -successful, the windows opened, as did also the door of the -cupboard and in there he felt the books side by side. -With the precious burden in his arms Peter stole up the -dark stairs to the Observatory. He locked the door carefully, -lit a piece of candle and sank down trembling with -expectation at the table and began to examine the books.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then he made a terrible discovery. He understood -nothing, absolutely nothing of this system of figures and -lines. “Debit,” “credit,” “carried forward,” etc., stood -there. What it all meant he could not make out. The -name Axel Brundin & Co. he found everywhere in the -books. It stared out at him with ever-increasing mystery. -It was not at all the straightforward way that Peter had -imagined in connection with sacks of flour and barrels -of potatoes. He found nothing to hold fast to. At last -his head swam. He could not master Brundin’s row of -figures.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter struck his forehead against the table, cursing -and sobbing. This was a terrible defeat. Hopeless, miserable, -stiff with cold, he stole down from the icy Observatory -and put the books back in the cupboard without -having succeeded in stealing a single one of the bailiff’s -secrets.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That night chronicled a grievous relapse into the old -sense of impotence. Peter lay again in a besieged fortress. -And the Giant pursued him through a cycle of gruesome -dreams. Amongst other things the “Dreadful One” -ate six recently slaughtered pigs in a trice, whilst Frida -stood stark naked before him and stirred a pail containing -Peter’s blood.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But in spite of all this the old days were over. Peter -the Watch-dog began slowly to pluck up courage again. -As he brooded and brooded he realised at last that it was no -longer possible to hunt alone. And so it came about that -Peter too began to haunt Ekbacken. But he took very -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>good care not to run up against Stellan and Laura, whose -road lay in the same direction. He did not aim so high -as they. He had no desire to talk to his guardian. No, -Peter hovered about the old book-keeper, Lundbom. His -opportunity came in the evenings when the old man sat in -his own room smoking his pipe and drinking his hot whisky, -with his books in front of him. He questioned him patiently -and insistently until the old man felt touched by the -interest of this promising youth in double-entry Italian -book-keeping, and gave him proper instruction. Peter -literally sucked up the information. He was not difficult -to teach. Now he could calculate—he who had always -failed in his examinations in mathematics. With every -successful addition he added something to his power and -with every correct subtraction he subtracted something from -Brundin’s. Oh, what bliss it was to feel how his bugbear -was again shrinking and growing less each day.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During these efforts, Peter had not ceased his observations. -Now he knew what had been sent from the estate -during four whole months, prices and all. Then he repeated -his bold stroke one Saturday evening when the bailiff -went to town as usual to enjoy himself. But this time -he could decipher the mysterious writing. Oh! it was -an hour of feverish triumph up there in the Observatory. -Peter the Watch-dog found at once audacious frauds to -fasten his teeth into, amongst other things, Axel Brundin -who was only debited for 60 barrels of potatoes during -November and December. But Peter knew for certain that -the correct figure was 73. There he had a bite at the two -brothers’ hind legs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter lay sleepless the whole night and fed his revenge -on Brundin.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Early on Sunday morning he stalked over to Ekbacken -and found his guardian in bed. Now he no longer shunned -the public gaze or beat about the bush. He went straight -to the point, was bold and insinuating. He cast the stolen -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>rye and potatoes straight in old Hermansson’s face. But -his guardian jumped up highly offended.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What are you saying, boy? Remember that you are -talking of a person I have appointed. How did you get hold -of the books? What do you know about the yield of the -estate?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter was not to be intimidated. He came back time -after time with his rye and his potatoes. Gradually his -guardian began to soften.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But it’s not possible,” he sighed dismally, “I am not -accustomed to people betraying my confidence in this way. -Very sad, really very sad, why did I ever undertake the -thankless task of becoming your guardian. Most sad and -unpleasant!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After this he ordered his shaving water and began to -dress. Peter sat still with his armful of books and watched -his guardian. As soon as he was dressed he recovered his -dignity and his authority:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I shall arrange for an investigation,” he said. “Go back -to your lessons now, my dear Peter. This is no matter for -children.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>No, there Uncle Hermansson was right. This was no -matter for children. That’s why he ought to have looked -after it better himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sauntered home again entirely liberated from his -frightened sensation in the presence of grown-ups, and of -their authority and their ability.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After service old Hermansson came solemnly driving up -to Selambshof and conducted a great investigation in the -office in the absence of Brundin.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was no end to the revelations now. Everyone had -something to say against the bailiff. As soon as the ice -was broken, accusations poured in against the culprit. They -almost fought to stick their knives into him in order to save -their own skins.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>Evidently Selambshof had been systematically robbed for -years.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the midst of all this, Brundin came driving back from -town in a state of mild intoxication. The old Fairy Prince -now cut a poor figure. He seemed quite nonplussed that -the old servants should have so completely forgotten his -gifts to them, his snuff, his gin, and his blind eye to their -own little peculations. For a moment he stiffened and made -an insolent effort to deny everything, but he failed miserably -in the face of Anders’ evidence. Anders had become -anxious about his carelessness in the matter of receipts, etc., -and had himself written down all that he had driven into -town in order to protect himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter did not now stand aside as at the sticking of the -pigs. No, he stood in the midst of the crowd. Now he had -a voice in the matter. Sometimes he laughed suddenly, a -giggling, nervous laughter. The boy seemed suddenly to -have grown into something more like a man. When the -examination was over he suddenly looked quite disappointed. -For his part he would have liked to go on for -ever. The old servants left, however, and old Hermansson -went home to consult a lawyer. Brundin sat alone in the -office, ruminating. Then Peter thrust his face through the -door, grinning:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You thief,” he cried. “You cursed thief.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Oh, it was heavenly to spit at the cracked Colossus, -really to trample the old fear under foot.</p> - -<p class='c009'>No action was brought against Brundin. He himself -possessed nothing, but his brother was frightened into paying -a round sum corresponding to the proved losses of the -estate.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then came the ignominious departure. He had been ill -for some days, but now he was off at last.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter did not show himself at first. But down under the -lime tree stood Hedvig. She had come straight home when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>she heard of the scandal. There she stood pale and stiff -and motionless and watched Brundin’s furniture being -carried out. God only knows what she thought and felt. -Perhaps it was a feeling of dismal deliverance.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now the sledge with its load of furniture slipped towards -the town crunching through the half-melted snow mixed -with sand—a bad surface for sledging. Brundin had not -even put his head outside the door but now he had to get -out. Crestfallen, grey, with downcast eyes, he came out -with a dining-room clock under his arm. Hedvig only -stared at him. His eyes met hers for a moment when he -was getting into the sledge. He bowed awkwardly and then -the spring of the clock made a noise as if it had been broken. -Hedvig did not bend her head, did not return his greeting. -She stood there like a graven image and there was -something of a rigid dark triumph in her expression.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But when Brundin disappeared down the avenue she -stole into his empty house and with a face suddenly grey -with the hunger of love she rubbed it against the empty -walls.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter stood down at the corner of the avenue. He -had relapsed into his old habit of going somewhere alone -to meditate. He wondered how it was that Brundin was -not put into prison. Fancy if it was because old Hermansson -did not dare to bring Brundin into Court. What was -it Kristin used to say: “It’s a pity for those children -who have to have a guardian,” she used to say. Well, -Peter did not exactly believe that old Hermansson had -cheated them. But he had all the same a vague feeling -that the matter ought not to be forgotten.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The distrust we learn during the years when we have -a right to be trustful easily becomes a dangerous weapon.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was now a little later in the spring. A new bailiff -of proved honesty had been appointed and Peter was sent -to an elementary Agricultural School in the Upland plain.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He did not like being there. The other pupils seemed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>to him dull, the soil unfavourable. The Brundin case -was still fermenting within him. He longed to be home. -There are many kinds of homesickness, and one of them -is of a kind not suitable for poetry.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Let us now look at our friend Peter during the spring -ploughing. The pupils were standing in a bunch out on -the clay and each one had to plough a plot with the new -American steel plough.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Press harder on the right guide. Not too shallow and -not too deep. Look at the horses. The furrows must be -straight as a die.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus said the teacher. Peter was the last. He stood -there changing feet and thinking that he would take root -in the clay. At last it was his turn. He called to the -horses and the furrow was started. It was a still April -day with big white clouds in the sky. The horses’ sides -and the newly turned clay soil shone in the sun. Down -in a hollow hung a blue mist and further away a wood -of budding birches shimmered like a purple-brown cloud. -But Peter neither saw nor felt anything of all that. Nor -did he enjoy seeing how finely the ploughshare cut through -and turned up the frozen soil. He had no desire just -to add furrow to furrow in the ploughed field. He only -thought it was heavy, tiresome, lost labour. And all -the same he looked like a peasant with his coarse features -and his heavy awkward carriage, which he had probably -inherited from his mother’s side. But a poison had entered -into the peasant’s body. It was the infection of the -town—the town that had begun to creep nearer and nearer -Selambshof. It was anxiety to turn everything into money. -If only he were back at Selambshof, he thought. But he -did not long for the house or the trees. He longed to -sneak about, and spy and struggle for possession of the -money that he already scented. To go about here ploughing -soil that was not even his own made him sick. He -had already developed the habit of looking at everything -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>from the point of view of ownership. You cannot take -any interest in a thing for itself. No, nothing exists in -itself but only as “mine” or “yours,” principally “mine.” -To whom did this field belong? To the County? That -is the same thing as nobody. That was empty, strange, -and simply repellent, thought Peter. He had already begun -to fear common interests and common institutions. -They constituted a kind of silent affront to his selfishness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter came slowly back on the return and moved -alongside his first furrow. It did not look very straight. -He was reproved by his instructor—he heard the mumbling -and suppressed laughter of his fellow students. -What stupid country bumpkins they were with their lazy -self-confidence. Their rustic self-importance about spray-drains -and dung-wells irritated him. What experience of -life had they had? It would do them good to get caught -in the snares of somebody like Brundin and to be really, -thoroughly cheated for once. And then he began to think -of that old story again. There was something strangely -fascinating in thinking of Brundin’s tricks and wheezes. -Of course he disapproved of it all. But he could not -help thinking of it, all the same. “So that is what they -call business,” thought Peter. “That is the way to get -rich.” He felt a strange disquietude, one moment he was -hot and the next cold. “I shall never allow anybody to -cheat me,” he thought. “But how can you really make -sure? The only way is, of course, to go to meet one’s -enemy and forestall him. You must practise deception, -not much, of course, but sufficient to prevent him from -deceiving you.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had now done his allotted share of the ploughing. -He stopped the horses and wiped his brow.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are not ploughing deep enough, or straight enough. -This is not a surface-plough. You ought to get down -to the subsoil all the way. What sort of a growth do you -expect to get here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>“I don’t care a damn,” thought Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the Farm gong sounded and they moved homewards -along the wet road. Peter jogged beside the horses -with half-closed eyes. He was dreaming of Selambshof in -figures. He had seen them,—when he pried into the books -of the estate. There were rents for land and houses, for -fishing rights, and quarries, for cartage and for the produce -of the estate. Enormous sums in his eyes. “I shall -control all that money,” he thought. “I shall be bailiff, -and I shall have my reward, because I saved the estate -from Brundin. No, don’t imagine that I can be kept out -of all that.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter breathed heavily. He felt a queer sucking sensation -in his stomach. Fancy if it should all be his. Fancy -if one day he should become rich, rich! No, he no longer -had only fear and worries—certain timid, trembling voluptuous -desires contracted his throat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Is it then to be wondered at that Peter Selamb did not -plough deep enough in the alien and unsympathetic Upland -clay?</p> - -<p class='c009'><i>These were the days of his betrothal to wealth.</i></p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span> - <h2 class='c005'>VIII<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>SEPTEMBER SPRING</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Laura lay awake the whole night reading a novel, -and at breakfast she only played with her food. -Then she stole out into the pantry and took her usual -draught of vinegar.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was a day in the late summer, warm and still. Down -the slope the August pears were tempting, the hammock -and the lazy lapping of the water against the shutters of -the bathing box were also a standing temptation. But -Laura resisted them. For a whole fortnight she had struggled -to get rid of her sunburn and to become pale and -thin. Slowly she went back to her room and tried to -think at each step that she was rather weak and feeble.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s room was small and shady. It lay on the -ground floor overlooking the avenue. She walked up to -the mirror and scrutinized herself carefully from head to -foot. She was no longer a plump little bright-eyed imp -with plaits of fair hair dangling behind, and fat legs. -No, it was a pale, interesting-looking young lady who -stood there with a curled fringe, neat waist and a tired -and dreamy look in her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When Laura had gazed at herself for a long while, with -mixed feelings of complete approval and vague pity, she -stole to the window and sat down very carefully as if she -had been made of some very brittle material. It was a -narrow and rather dismal window in the thick walls of -Selambshof. A spray of the sparse and dying vine on the -north side of the house flapped against the window-sill. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>It bore a small bunch of grapes, green and no bigger -than pin-heads. What sweet doll’s grapes they are, she -thought suddenly, and she had a vision of a doll’s party -in the nursery with grapes for dessert, but she punished -herself immediately for this childishness. She had indeed -other things to think of. Piously she laid her hands -one over the other and settled down comfortably in the -chair and with her newfound refinement of melancholy, -she dreamed that she was in very weak health and very -sad—a really seductive little dream!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Herman came walking towards the house, straight, -smart, and correct. He was wearing a student’s cap, for -by dint of hard work and an ambitious spirit he had come -so far. And in spite of the heat he did not wear it tipped -back, but on top of his head as if it were a part of the -uniform of manhood and knowledge. And he did not -look around him so nervously under an affected unconcern. -No, now he looked just a little haughty as he came -straight up to Laura’s window, climbed up on the seat and -shook hands with her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why do you never come to Ekbacken nowadays? It’s -a fortnight since you were there.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura half-closed her eyes and smiled a wan smile. -Her hand dropped out of his and lay like a tired little -bird on the window-sill:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My dear Herman, we have been there too much already.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What nonsense!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was vexed at his clumsiness in not noticing her -haggard appearance:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Besides, I don’t feel very well, you know, Herman.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was too much, even for Herman. He could not -help laughing.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You ill, Laura! don’t talk such rubbish!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>What unfeeling, hard-hearted laughter. After all her -efforts. At that moment she thoroughly detested him. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>But she did not answer sharply, she only looked deeply -grieved and pained:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-bye,” she murmured, “I am too tired to talk to -you any longer. I must lie down for a while.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thereupon she closed the window in Herman’s face and -pulled down the blind. Then she lay down on her bed -and thought how unseeing and cold-hearted people were. -Did they want to make her drink more vinegar? Well -she was not frightened, although she had heard that it -might make her really ill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>For another week Laura continued the darkness and -vinegar treatment and then walked resolutely down to old -Hermansson.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At Ekbacken the saws were humming as smoothly as -ever in the red shed. The sailors were still there caulking -the old smacks and old Lundbom was still casting up not -unfavourable balances. Nothing had changed at Ekbacken -except that it had grown a little older and more peaceful. -But now and then a certain ill-disposed rival would rub -his hands and think that Ekbacken would prove too good -for this world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Hermansson was not in the office. He did not often -appear there nowadays. He sat in his dressing gown and -smoking cap in the big easy chair in the drawing room, -reading a newspaper that he held far from his eyes as if -not to come into close contact with the restlessness and -misery of the world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Hermansson had aged considerably of late. He -was almost always poorly now. But he did not complain. -He protested with more and more marked dignity against -his weakness. Unconsciously the Brundin case had dealt -a nasty blow to his assurance and comfort. In consequence, -his tone had become more self-satisfied and domineering -than ever. The old man was really quite tender-hearted -beneath his hard exterior and Stellan and Laura -had at once perceived this, with the cruel insight of youth. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>They did not hesitate to exploit their guardian’s weakness -for their own comfort.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura said “Good-morning,” and sank with a sigh into -a chair, and looked worse than ever.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What’s the matter with you, dear child? At your age -one should not go about looking ill. Look at me, I shall -soon be seventy and I am as well as ever.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And saying this, he relapsed into the soft upholstery -of his chair, his face twitching from rheumatism. But -this had no effect on Laura:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I can’t help it, I cough and have no appetite. I think -I need a change of air.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Change of air! When do you think I have ever had -a change of air in my life? And yet I have never been -ill more than three days together in all my life!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Everybody can’t be as well as you, Uncle. And I am -only a girl. Oh! if only Mother were alive so that I -might have somebody to talk to.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s voice trembled and the tears were already in -her eyes. Her guardian grew alarmed:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What’s the matter? What do you want to do, then, -my dear child?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Laura could restrain her desire no longer:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I ... I want to go to a boarding school ... in -Switzerland. You get such an appetite there. It would -do my chest good. Elvira Lähnfeldt at Trefvinge is going -to Neuchatel. Stellan told me so, for he was invited. -Neuchatel is said to be so very suitable. And fancy to -be able to talk French properly—and then the air,—”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Hermansson’s horizon did not stretch beyond the -frontiers of his own country. He was dumbfounded by -the audacity of the proposal:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Impossible, my dear child, impossible!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After the first attack Laura collected her forces for a -more systematic siege:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, Uncle, you should live at Selambshof,” she wailed. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>“You would be ill in a week. Yes, it is so unpleasant at -home since that dreadful business with Brundin.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura glanced at her guardian; she seemed satisfied with -the effect and continued:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is worst with Peter. He curses like a farm labourer -and he swears at table. He is really no company for a -young girl!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That also had a good effect. Old Hermansson could -not bear Peter since he had exposed Brundin. Laura already -knew so much about the human heart. The old -man nodded pensively:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I admit that your brother Peter is not all that he -ought to be. But if it is not always pleasant at home, you -know that you are always welcome at Ekbacken.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thank you. You are so awfully kind, both you and -Herman. But ...” (Laura flushed beneath her self-induced -pallor and glanced archly at her guardian) “but ... -it looks strange for me to be always here. I don’t know -if it is right any longer and then I thought that both you -and Herman would like me to have some sort of education.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here she was interrupted by an attack of coughing, and -she put her hand to her chest with an anxious and sudden -air of distraction.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Her guardian looked very perplexed. As a matter of -fact he looked upon the affection of the young pair for -each other with some pleasure. He himself had originally -been a poor clerk who had risen to his present position -by marrying the daughter of his employer. To him Selambshof -and the Selambs still seemed an old distinguished -place and family. Yes! secretly he was even -flattered by Laura’s walks with Herman. The thought of -his future daughter-in-law being in a Swiss boarding school -like the young lady at Trefvinge was also pleasant. So -he slowly assumed an expression which was more of anxiety -than of opposition.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>“Well, my dear child, we must think it over.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had to control herself not to dance for joy so -long as she was within sight of Ekbacken. But when she -reached home she ate for the first time for a whole month -till she was satisfied.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The following weeks were for Laura a time of glowing -expectation, blissful faithlessness, touching farewells and -a feeling almost approaching love.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On one of the first days of September, when the air had -all the coolness and clearness of autumn, she and Herman -were walking through the garden of Selambshof. -The garden was situated on the southern slope, between -the avenue and the lake, screened by a row of tall ash -trees from the dismal, brooding, heaviness of the house. -It was much neglected but it was a pleasant sort of neglect -and this was after all a little corner of Selambshof where -something of an idyll still lingered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura and Herman were strolling slowly along the wet, -half choked paths between currant bushes smothered in -weeds and scraggy old apple trees covered with grey moss -which still as if by a miracle bore beautiful shining apples. -Here a tumbled-down fence lay with an appearance -of infinite fatigue, and there the pestweed had pushed up -into the light out of a half smothered ditch, and with its -dense growth of enormous leaves had vanquished a row -of raspberry bushes, where dry branches stretched up -helplessly out of the green sea. Then there was a row -of frames with broken glass and a bed of cabbages looking -quite blue in the shade. Then came the long beds with -a few asters and dahlias in front of the gardener’s dilapidated -old cottage.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is very beautiful here,” whispered Laura. There was -a note of surprise in her voice. It had evidently never -occurred to her that it might be beautiful here. She glanced -sideways at Herman who looked at once shy and hurt.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If it is beautiful here why are you going away?”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>The sun was not less bright because Herman turned away -from her and grumbled. Laura pressed his hand encouragingly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’ll soon be back,” she whispered softly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She felt very superior to Selambshof and Herman and -all the other everyday things which remained where they -were put and never moved. But all the same there was a -strange tenderness in her feeling of superiority. Sometimes -she did not quite know if it was gay or sad.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Johannes, the gardener, sat in his porch and looked -tranquilly at the neglect around him. He had been a -sailor in his youth and divided his day into watches, four -hours he smoked his pipe and four hours he rested. But -during the day watch he slept. But somehow he managed -to pay his rent so that he was not driven out. Until today -Laura had only thought of the old man as something unkempt -and dirty. She had never given him a further -thought as she munched his apples. But now he suddenly -appeared quite nice to her, sitting there in the sunshine. -A bumble bee buzzed lazily round the patches on his trouser-knees. -His hands seemed as if made of bark. His whole -face was smothered with hair, just as the garden was with -weeds. When he scratched his beard with his coarse nail -there was a grating sound. But his eyes were wonderfully -calm. It was as if in a quiet, still, protected corner the -sun were shining down on a barrel of rainwater.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura suddenly realised why Tord spent so much time -with the gardener.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How is Tord’s fox?” she wondered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She referred to a fox that had been caught in a trap and -which Tord had been allowed to keep. It lived in a shed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Tord has got him on the leash,” smiled the old fellow, -pleased at the interest in their common pet.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The door of a big grateless room stood open. The floor -was covered with fruit. Laura dived in with the gardener -and came out with her hat filled with the rosiest apples that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>ever woman tempted man with. Herman sighed and ate. -It was all “sour grapes” to him. He pulled at Laura’s arm. -He wanted to be alone with her. He was jealous of the -garden, of the gardener, of the Swiss Alps, and of everything.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They moved on.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On the other side there was a hillock with terraces and -ledges and some tumbled-down summer cottages. Here -everything was silent, mysterious, and abandoned. Laura -and Herman walked about in the small devastated gardens -and peeped into the empty rooms where the winter seemed -already to have thrown its shadow. Squeezed in between -the lake and the hill lay a rambling old house given over to -the rooks. It was a high house with three balconies, built -over the water and embellished with some extraordinary -extensions on the land side. Here the water splashed -against the piles, covered with a green ooze, and the aspens, -burnt red by the autumn, rustled, and the whole was illuminated -by a strange light reflected from the paths covered -with yellow leaves.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman succeeded in opening the door. Past empty -cupboards, garden furniture and old gate-legged tables -covered with marks left by glasses they penetrated to the -highest balcony. Here the last flies of autumn buzzed -against the window panes and tendrils of Virginia Creeper -pushed in through the chinks and cracks.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They sank down on a garden seat strangely moved by this -sunny brightness and forlorn melancholy. Herman dug -his stick into the floor-boards and then he suddenly threw it -aside and kissed her. He kissed her passionately and -violently with bitter sealed lips. But she pulled him -towards her and opened her lips softly. And she loved to -feel how he tried to resist her but was not able to do so. -No, humbly and helplessly he clung to her lips. This was -their first real kiss. Everything before had been play. -And she was going to leave all this behind. She felt so -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>tenderly, so blissfully, so lovingly faithless. The tears came -into her eyes and she smiled like a real little angel.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At this moment Laura happened to look out through one -of the side windows. Who was that standing far away on -the hill, almost on the same level as they were, if not Hedvig. -She pretended to be interested in something out on the -lake. But the expression of offended loneliness and stern -disapproval in her pinched face was not to be mistaken. -She had a disagreeable way of stealing upon you, had -Hedvig. Of course she had seen everything. Of course -she was green with envy because Laura had caught Herman -and was going to Switzerland and was not as silly as -Hedvig herself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“So now we shall have her haunting this place,” muttered -Laura. “Now this jolly place is spoilt for us.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>They pulled an old curtain before the window so that -Hedvig should see nothing and then they stole away from -“The Rookery” as silently as Indians. Now they were out -in the wood on the other side of the avenue and they kissed -each other again, but without lingering. A restless longing -drove them on. They walked all the way to Träskängen -and when they got there it was almost evening. A cold -breeze met them as they jumped about from one dry spot -to another.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the deepest hollow there lay a white mist over banks -of reeds and pools. But when they came up again on the -other side of the hill towards the quarries it was so hot -that they had to stop. In the twilight the scene around -them seemed ragged and gloomy and deserted.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was old Enoch who had started blasting here once -upon a time. It seemed as if an evil spirit had ruled the -forest, or some barren destructive fiend. Everywhere -there were ravines, caves, treacherous holes and screes of -clattering stones and loose boulders ready to slip away beneath -your feet, and everything was enveloped in an almost -impenetrable growth of young golden aspen.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>And then the autumn moon rose above the forest in the -west.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It really is wonderfully fine,” whispered Herman, fascinated -by the romance of this desolate wilderness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, it is almost like the Alps,” answered Laura, and -groped for him that she might feel him tremble with -jealous love. But as soon as she had said it she trembled -herself. Yes, she was playing a dangerous game up there -among the rough boulders of Old Hök’s overgrown stony -wilderness. Laura suddenly felt love clutching her heart -with burning fingers. For a moment she gave herself up to -this new and painful sensation, but then she became frightened, -with the violent fear of a threatened egoism. She -jumped up and pushed him away from her:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, now I must go home.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman insisted:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, we must go up to Enoch’s gorge,” he panted. “It -is haunted, and up to the old quarrymen’s shed.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>His voice had never sounded so near her, so strangely -near. She followed him against her will.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Enoch’s gorge was a perpendicular precipitous gully, -blasted out of the rock. They held each others’ hands and -crept up to the edge with their heads swimming. It was -dark down below. Fancy if he pulls me down! the thought -flashed through Laura’s head, and she suddenly tore her -hand out of his.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then they came to the shed. There were stones in front -of the door, but Herman rolled them away. Inside something -lay on a couple of overturned empty boxes. In the -light of a match they saw a few books, a heap of strange -stones, shells and horses’ teeth, a dried-up lizard and a -broken bottle with fish spawn, by the side of a half-eaten -piece of bread and butter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then somebody stood in the doorway. It was Tord. -He looked unusually tall in the twilight. In spite of his -sixteen years he was dressed in breeches and an outgrown -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>sailor blouse, his long wrists sticking out from the sleeves. -He stood quite still and stared at the invaders with an expression -of fear and anger. And between his legs the fox -thrust out his pointed nose and his bright eyes and sniffed. -He had only three legs, poor thing, the fourth had been -caught in the trap.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What are you doing here?” growled Tord at last in a -thick voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman and Laura were embarrassed to have been taken -unawares and in their haste resorted to jeers.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura pushed some beetles on to Tord’s bread and butter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Here you are! a beetle sandwich!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord turned pale. This was his refuge, his peaceful retreat. -Here he had all his trophies from Träskängen, his -lonely and glorious hunting ground for frog spawn, lizards, -divers, birds’ eggs and bats—and now his poor secrets were -captured by intruders. He stood there swinging his long -bare arms. He gave one the impression of a dumb captive -creature like the fox beside him. It was as if he could only -express his feelings by a shriek. But now he clenched his -fist and his face twitched with sudden and violent anger.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Go away,” he cried. “Get away. This is my place.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, we are going.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura dragged Herman with her. In the bushes beside -them they heard the flop of a stone that Tord had cast after -them. And then he called out something coarse after them, -one of those impossible, foul expressions of impotent boyhood. -Herman wanted to rush back and thrash him, but -Laura stamped her foot on the ground and commanded him -to take her home at once. She was suddenly short, cold, -and offended, just as if Herman had injured her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are silly,” she snapped. “What business had we -up in that stupid quarry? Tell me what business we had -there!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>In reality Laura was not in the least angry. She was -afraid, and she sought relief for her fear in scolding him. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>Love had touched the egoism of her heart with a burning -finger, and she felt restless in the twilight. That was the -reason why she was so anxious to get home.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Poor Herman got no benefit from his kiss that evening. -And there were no more kisses before her departure. Laura -had suddenly grown careful, prim and full of moral qualms. -Only at the very last, when her ticket was bought and the -retreat clear did she recover some of her old amiability -and mischief, and deigned graciously to cajole his heart out -of his breast so as to have something to show to the other -schoolgirls.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now she was already standing on the step of the railway -carriage with Elvira Lähnfeldt and Manne and his mother -who were also travelling south. Cheerfully and with -perfect ease she chatted to everybody. She was radiantly -happy and her happiness made her beautiful. How could -she be so happy when Herman was standing there with a -void in his breast?</p> - -<p class='c009'>The train started. Her handkerchief was lost in the enveloping -white steam.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On the way back to Ekbacken, Herman instinctively -joined Stellan. With him the air seemed less oppressive -and it seemed that something of Laura remained after all.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had not been very often at Ekbacken lately. -And if he came it was to scold Laura, who was always there. -Sisters are a doubtful blessing when they begin to take -your friends away from you.</p> - -<p class='c009'>No, nowadays, Stellan went mostly to Manne at Kolsnäs. -He had nobody else to turn to, because Percy was away in -Jämtland for the summer on account of his chest. And -Stonehill had been sold. Lake Mälare was beginning to -be unfashionable and nice people moved out to sea. -And then the town was creeping nearer, and it seemed to -make the whole landscape look poor and ugly. They were -already laying the foundation of a factory close to Stonehill. -In those few years the fine place had already begun -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>to look insignificant and neglected. Stellan avoided looking -that way when he rowed over to Manne. He had to think of -the footman and the horses at Kolsnäs in order not to feel -sick of the old lake.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne had had a horse given to him in the spring, when -he had at last succeeded in squeezing through his matriculation -examination. The whole summer had been -spent in wild riding. Every second day Manne lent Stellan -his black horse, “Sultan,” for Manne was always a good -friend. He had a kind, open smile and blue, somewhat -misty eyes. He had already begun to lose the hair on the -top of his head, but that did not prevent him from looking -as boyish as ever. Nobody could look so splendidly unaware -of the fact that necks can be broken. But his wild -careering about was not restlessness. He did not worry -about what he was going to be. That was quite superfluous, -for his future was written on his face and the shape of his -legs. He was a born Cavalry officer!</p> - -<p class='c009'>For Stellan the matter was not quite so simple—he was -poor and besides, confound it, he had brains.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Anyhow, he enlarged his horizon. In company with -Manne he sometimes rode across to Trefvinge, the great -and magnificent Trefvinge. Stellan had always a strange -cold sensation, a mixture of voluptuous ease and of hatred -when his horse carried him across the grand stretch of -gravel in front of its great white façade. Trefvinge was a -real castle, a famous, historic castle of the seventeenth century. -It impressed everybody against their wills, except -the owner, Count Lähnfeldt, who had not been born a count. -The lord of the castle himself scarcely ever appeared, but -Elvira rode out with them. She was a slender girl with a -shrill commanding voice, especially when she was excited. -There was nothing shy about her and she had no particularly -girlish manners, so she did not spoil sport. None of the -young men were in love with her. Stellan used to tease -her in a way that was sometimes cold and biting. It was as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>if he wanted to take his revenge because the castle in which -she lived was so shockingly big and aristocratic.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In this way, then, the summer passed, and then Manne -got the silly idea of going to Germany with his mother. -That Elvira and Laura should go, of course, made no -difference to Stellan, but Manne! That was a blow—because -of “Sultan.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had nothing but Herman and the sailing boat to -fall back upon. And so after all the wild riding began -sailing just as wild. Stellan could not remain still. In -the autumn he felt that the cessation of the constraint of -school had left a certain emptiness and restlessness. The -future worried him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman was with him in the boat. His future was Laura. -He had thought of going to an English shipbuilding school -in the autumn. But he could not make up his mind. He -was caught in the memory of their kisses. He clung to -Stellan, her brother. Yes, it was only for Stellan’s sake he -took part in those chilly autumn sailing trips. He sat there -huddled up in the spray and hugged Laura’s solitary little -letter in his pocket and hoped that her brother would talk -of her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan saw very well that Herman was not living in the -same world as himself and that irritated him. He shrugged -his shoulders with a contemptuous pity which perhaps at -bottom was nothing more than the secret envy of the poor. -He smiled grim little smiles when he saw Herman’s eyes -directed towards him with the same expression of supplication. -He pressed the helm and conspired with the autumn, -the wind and the lake against this obstinate love. He was -happiest when Herman was fully occupied in bailing -out the water.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman sat by the fore-sheet, and slackened and made -fast. Now and then he looked astern at Stellan. There -was a mixture of admiration, anxiety and something akin to -secret pity in his look. Stellan wore the same expression -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>now as at school when things were at their hottest—bold, independent, -and scoffing. Oh! how Herman had envied him -that he never allowed himself to be impressed by his teachers, -that, in spite of his laziness, he always knew how -to answer. Ugh! the water dashed in from the lee! But -Stellan never condescended to luff up. It was almost terrible -to see how indifferent he was. He was quite capable -of sinking them. Herman was not afraid for himself. -But he felt a pang in his heart. Was there not something -strangely forlorn about Stellan. Did he not sit there alone -with the wind and the grey lake. It seemed as if poor -Stellan had been locked out from something. And he did -not even know that he could knock at the door.</p> - -<p class='c009'>These were Herman’s thoughts as he clung wet and -cold to the weather gunwale and received the worst spray -over his back. For he had a little letter in his pocket -to hug furtively.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One day something happened. But this time Herman -sat at the helm and not Stellan.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a dash of fitful April weather at the beginning -of October. The hot sun shone between big clouds and -below were black squalls. It was not rough, but there -came treacherous gusts of wind by the dips of the land. -And into the bargain it was Saturday.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Hermansson’s trim little “Ellida” lay for the moment -to lee as on a mirror. The sails hung slack, the boat lay -over to windward and the sun was deliciously warm. -Slowly they overhauled an absurd little overrigged boat, a -real caricature of a boat. It was painted white, and on -the stern was painted “Kalla,” in big black letters. -Aboard were three workingmen from the new factory -under construction. Their half-drunk bass voices rolled -out over the water. One of them stood with his foot -on the gunwale, gripping the stays with one hand and -flourishing a bottle in the other. Never had the sun shone -on such recklessness.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>Stellan’s eyes flashed:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This will be interesting,” he muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Ellida” was now in the shadow of a racing cloud. -They stared back at the man with the bottle. They had -a sudden horrid sensation of cold in the pit of the stomach. -Heigh Ho! Then the dark squall came sweeping along. -It first struck the small boat. She instantly went round -as if by a single turn of the hand of Fate. The three -workingmen had not even time to utter a curse before -they were in the water and the boat had sunk.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On the “Ellida” as I have said before, Herman sat at -the tiller. Not for a moment did he think of their own -danger. He only wanted to rush to help the drowning -men. But in his flurry he put the tiller over to windward -instead of to leeward. And in an instant the “Ellida” had -the same fate. The whole thing had not taken more than -five seconds.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The water was ice cold. The boat disappeared quickly -under them. Herman saw Stellan appear beside him. -He did not say anything, but began to swim towards land. -Herman followed. It was a fair distance, but at last they -crawled up amongst the boulders along the shore, stiff -and tired out.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How idiotic,” gasped Stellan. “You don’t sail a boat -to capsize it!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman stared, as if suddenly turned to stone, across -the lake. It was empty and silent. The water shone green -again, with little white crests, in the sun. Only a -few floating bulkheads and oars bore witness to the catastrophe. -Ashore nobody seemed to have noticed anything.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman ran out into the water again up to his waist:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Help!” he cried, “Help! They are drowning! Help!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The echo came back from the nearest cliff: “Help! -Help!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan pulled him by the arm:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>“There is no use calling. They are where they are. -Now let us run home!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Drowned! All three. It’s dreadful,” moaned Herman.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then they began to run. At the corner of the avenue -where they must separate to reach their respective homes, -Stellan caught hold of his friend’s arm again. There -were blue and yellow streaks on his face from the soaked -lining of his cap, but his expression was both tense and -elated:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t forget that we capsized in trying to rescue them,” -he muttered. “It looks beastly bad otherwise.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That same evening they were sitting out on the long -landing stage by the yard. It was quite calm now. The -atmosphere twinkled coldly between the black fleets of -cloud. Over the oak trees out on the spit of land the -lights of Stockholm lit the sky. There is always something -both of exhortation and menace in the pale radiance in -the sky over an invisible city. Now the crescent moon -peeped out over the serried edge of the forest behind -Stonehill and threw a few shafts of light over the dark -water—the dark water holding the three dead.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman was talking of the accident. He could not -let the subject drop. He returned time after time to certain -points, in order to prove that they could have done absolutely -nothing to save the drowning men. There was -a note of supplication in his voice as if nevertheless he -felt remorse. He also shivered secretly. The world -seemed to him gruesome—gruesome but still blessed, because -Laura was in it. Her smile was there and so were -the cold stars, over the black water. He was sitting beside -her brother. Again Herman felt that burning desire -to talk of her. But he did not dare, there was something -in Stellan’s tone that kept him back, that made him vaguely -uneasy. And he was too young too, thought Herman, to -understand how different people can be.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan walked up and down the landing stage. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>talked in short, jerky sentences about sailing and riding -and sport. He seemed strangely excited. He was one of -those who are stimulated by the icy blasts of life. It -was as if the dead out there helped him to come to a -decision. With complete detachment from all this talk -he suddenly came to reflect coolly, clearly and swiftly -on his own future. Life is short and uncertain, he -thought. Life is a gamble. It is silly to take it too -seriously. I shall be an officer. I shall have a smart -uniform. I shall spend my time amidst arms, horses and -smart people. I want to be on top. I shall have excitement, -adventures, be in danger, and perhaps go to war. -But the money? It is expensive to be an officer. Well, -there will always be a way out. I suppose I shall have -to use Laura as a lure. Poor Herman has surrendered unconditionally. -I can get him to do what I like. He -just goes about begging me to trample on him for Laura’s -sake. He will do the hard work for me with the old man. -Anyhow he can’t say “no” to anything, poor old fellow. -I’ll be an officer all right if I play my cards properly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus it happened that Stellan Selamb found his guiding -star one autumn evening. It was a bright, frosty star twinkling -keenly over there in the pale light halo over the -town, the town that lay thus waiting on the confines of -his childhood’s kingdom, the town with the cross lightning -of fate and a merciless consuming fire.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>That same evening Laura stood with a bag of sweets -in her hand and looked out through a small half-opened -ground glass window. She was, with due respect, in the -smallest room in the school, a room with a bolt on the -inside. She had withdrawn there in order to eat her -sweets in peace. If you were to share with all the other -girls there would be nothing left for yourself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Whilst Laura munched sweets her glance strayed up -the sloping expanse of roofs and treetops of the town -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>and out over the calm Neuchatel Lake, which seemed to -her as large as a sea, and on to the towering Alps in the -distance, whose snow covered tops soared out of the shadow -and silence into the light of a crescent moon of the palest -silver.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura stared, ate, and dreamed. How perfectly lovely, -she thought. And she was right. Not even a poster -could be more beautiful.</p> - -<p class='c009'>What was Laura dreaming about now in the glow of -this eternal snow? Not about silence, the infinite withdrawal -from the world, oh no! Laura was dreaming about -a long honeymoon, a long, long honeymoon. She was -walking on wonderfully soft hotel carpets, she was eating -seven course dinners in luxurious dining-rooms, she was -furtively kissing in dark rumbling tunnels, she was saved -by strong arms on the edge of dizzy precipices. And -it was of course Herman who kissed her in the tunnels, and -saved her with his strong arms. Of course it was Herman. -She never thought of anybody else. It was not at all -disagreeable to dream of a long wedding trip with Herman.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But of a home with him she did not dream.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The bag was suddenly empty, and her throat was burning -after all the strong-flavoured sweets she had eaten. Laura -had to run down and drink a whole bottle of water and -somehow she did not write any letters as she had intended.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span> - <h2 class='c005'>IX<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>PETER THE BOSS</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Already at the Agricultural school a strange change -had begun in Peter Selamb. And it became still -more pronounced on his return home. He somehow -became more positive. He realised that one cannot go on -for ever merely watching and spying on others. It is -better to be the object of attention.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter wanted to be bailiff at Selambshof and for that -reason he tried to get friends and supporters. Was the -spying and grumbling Peter the Watch-dog endeavouring -to secure friends like a politician before an election? Was -he not doomed to failure? No, because Peter was no -longer the same after his victory over Brundin. Fear had -thrown a spell upon him. It had made him ugly and -repulsive. But now he had somehow broken the enchantment. -To the naked eye he seemed almost human. From -fear he had passed quite readily to lying, a not uncommon -step. Fear is the parent of a real and deliberate -mendacity and somehow it persists under the smiling exterior. -As yet Peter did not lie consciously. Alas! the -conscious lie is so slight, so harmless, so transparent. -No, give me the real, thorough, unconscious lie, especially -if it is joined with that particular greed that so often grows -up from the deep root of fear. Then we may expect -consequences.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As Peter changed, the people round about him also -began to change. They were no longer dangerous and -malevolent people before whom he had to be on his guard -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>every moment. He began to see them in the light of his -desires, and that is also a light of its kind. He found to -his surprise that these people, formerly so unreliable, not -unwillingly allowed themselves to be manœuvred to his -advantage. Sometimes they seemed to move round him -like mutes in a play, in which Peter Selamb was the hero, -and which play must end with his enrichment and aggrandisement. -But do not suppose that Peter grew proud, extravagant -or reckless. No, he took good care not to -awaken any dangerous fear in others. Quite instinctively, -and only to hide his real self, he gradually grew more -and more good-natured, pleasant and cheerful. It cost -him no effort because he felt he would earn money by it. -Yes, even his body assumed something of his cunning and -grew and expanded about the chest and stomach, in order -to remove all angles and give him a more trustworthy -appearance, so that he might the more easily achieve his -end. Peter never looked so pleased as when someone -joked with him about his getting fat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The first indication of Peter’s new frame of mind was -that of learning to play “vira.” He made a third with -the bailiff Inglund and old Lundbom from the yard.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As a matter of fact Peter had never been on a really -bad footing with the new bailiff. Inglund was an experienced -farmer, but obstinate and averse to everything new. -He was fond of his ease, the type of man who has worked -his whole life for low wages for other people. He did not -love authority and was not unwilling to divide his responsibility. -He did not mind Peter shadowing him under the -pretence of helping him. He liked to teach whatever -he knew of his trade. “Next time I can send the boy and -need not go myself,” was his thought. And then he would -remain on his sofa smoking his pipe and smiling at silly -Peter, who ran his errands. Meanwhile Peter’s knowledge -grew daily and as he advanced with rapid strides to his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>position of authority he became more and more indispensable. -And both were satisfied.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus Peter played “vira” with Inglund and Lundbom. -With what an agreeable feeling of dangers overcome did -he not sit there in the bailiff’s quarters smoking and drinking -and sending forth his orders from these seats of power -and knowledge. This was different from roaming about in -the dark outside, hungry, lonely and frightened. Peter enjoyed -the old men’s calm and circumstantial way of talking -and telling stories. It was somehow informed with a superior -and yet harmless and benevolent wordly wisdom. -And one could still feel one’s superior strength. Warmed -by his grog Peter sat smiling contentedly and drank in -their golden lore of the changing nature of the earth and -the varying seasons and the strange ways of money among -the labyrinths of the law. And all the time he saw visions -of future wealth in the thick clouds of tobacco smoke.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Like all new beginners Peter had, of course, shamelessly -good luck. But he did not become disagreeably smug -or unpleasantly overweening. That was a great feature -in his character. He tried to moderate his good luck in -order to be tolerated in the company. And soon he had -become quite a shrewd and skilful player.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter never regretted having learnt to play “vira.” The -cards soon proved an excellent means of communication -with useful people. The gatherings in the bailiff’s rooms -soon had some offshoots in town. Peter accompanied -the bailiff to cheery drinking and card parties with business -friends, both buyers and sellers. Thus it was by -the paths of rye, potatoes and bacon that Peter penetrated -into the town. Here Peter recognised amongst many new -faces some of the old ones from Brundin’s great crayfish -party. They were all men of seventeen stone with heavy -fists and well filled purses. But they no longer pressed -Peter down to the ground. On the contrary, he felt a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>solemn exhilaration mingled with hopeful expectation -as he sat among these bulging pocketbooks. And whilst -he arranged his cards and watched his play he kept his -eyes and ears open, learned the correct jargon, studied the -market, and did not lose a thread in the skein of business -names and connections. During all this time there often -came over him the dreamy expression of one who stops -in his walk to listen to the rush of a still invisible cataract. -It was the rolling of money that Peter heard in the noise of -the streets, which is so unfamiliar to country folk. The -town to him meant money, the money that would one day -roll into Selambshof and fall into Peter’s pockets.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But let us return to the bailiff’s rooms and see Peter’s -second adversary. Old Lundbom, who was an expert in -the difficult game of “misère,” sat muttering, with his spectacles -slipping down over his nose and his extinguished -cigar stuck into a gap in his front teeth. From him, too, -could Peter derive much useful knowledge. As a managing -clerk he knew not only the recognised forms of business -and ways of money and the setting forth of it in -columns with figures and names. He was also secretly -a keen amateur lawyer, was this old nutcracker. The Law -of Sweden, text books of civil law, reports of law cases -and judgments constituted his favourite reading in his spare -time. Once started on that subject he was difficult to -stop. It was with a peculiar enjoyment that Peter heard -him tell of long and involved lawsuits in which large sums -had changed hands. To Peter’s simple understanding the -law was nothing else but a collection of all the tricks that -could be used to get hold of other people’s money. Old -Lundbom would have been very perplexed in his unselfish -complacency if he had seen how greedily Peter picked up -any information that might possibly be of use to him some -day.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One evening—it was as a matter of fact a fine and calm -evening in the beginning of July and the hay had just been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>got in—the usual trio sat playing by the light of a lamp -out in the porch. Then Peter suddenly heard something -which made him think hard. Old Lundbom was speaking -about a business that had to be sold at a great loss after -the death of the owner because one of the heirs was a minor -and had to receive his inheritance in trustee stock.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here at Selambshof both Laura and Tord were minors! -And their father had lain in bed for half a year past. If -he died now—how could Peter become bailiff?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter tried in vain to lure Lundbom into a discussion -of the case of Selambshof. He could not force a direct -question over his lips. He was somehow afraid to give -himself away, and his old lurking fear beset him again -in this stupid, meaningless fashion. It would have been -quite natural for him to ask questions about the future -risks of the estate. But then we all have such fits....</p> - -<p class='c009'>That night Peter lay sleepless. Selambshof was once -more a besieged fortress. Even Brundin’s ghost haunted -the dual silence. A sad relapse...!</p> - -<p class='c009'>As early as four o’clock he put on his trousers and stole -to his father. The old man lay put away in a small room -by himself far away on the ground floor towards the north. -In former days the soiled linen had been kept there. Oskar -Selamb had now overlived his time seventeen years. There -must after all have been something in old Enoch’s toughness -and vitality. But last Christmas he had been ill for -some time and since then he had never troubled to get up -again. He thought it more comfortable in bed. Now -he lay there with his chin in the air and his long grey beard -in waves over the sheet. He did not snore at all. A -spider came out of a corner and ran quickly over the -counterpane. Was the old man dead? Peter started and -stole with trembling limbs up to the bedside. No! Oskar -Selamb lay awake staring with his bleared, grey eyes at -the brown damp stains on the ceiling.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How are you, father?” Peter said anxiously.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>The old man’s voice was as rusty as if it had not been -used for years:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Been running,” he muttered pointing at the damp -stains.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But I asked how you were, father.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig occupied the room next door and it was she -who nursed the old man. She insisted on doing it. -Now her father pointed with his thumb to her room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Up?” he wondered anxiously.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But I wanted to know how you felt, father?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Must not wash me,” whined Oskar Selamb. “Cold -water!—don’t wash me...!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Hedvig suddenly stood in the door. She was -dressed in a torn old dressing gown. Her black hair was -brushed tight over the temples and hung over her shoulders -in a long shining plait, which looked as if it had -been plaited by hard, mean fingers. She was still pale -with a strange, deathly pallor, and her dark eyes were -awake, as intensely awake as if the sweet drops of sleep -had never been poured into them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What’s the matter now?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She spoke in a tone as if she had been lying reproaching -herself the whole night.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter felt uncomfortable. Did people not sleep in this -house of a night. He did not particularly like to see -Hedvig. Brundin’s shadow hung over her still. She was -like a ghost from the time of his great fear. And then -she was religious. She had a sort of secret understanding -with the gods of which Peter in his innermost heart was -still rather frightened. Yes, however one approached -her, one seemed to be burnt up. But all the same Peter -managed the business splendidly. He resembled a man -playing ball with a live coal which is still too hot to hold -for long in his hand. Though frightened himself he directed -her fear into a channel where there might slumber -things of use to Peter Selamb.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>“I woke up and felt so anxious about father,” he muttered. -“I felt as if something was going to happen to -him.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do you think I am not listening?” Hedvig said, shrugging -her shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We have not always been as we ought to be to poor -father,” sighed Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig’s beautiful face hardened and she assumed the -expression of an injured martyr.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t I wear myself out for him? Haven’t I nursed -him day and night since he has been confined to his bed?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was not so convinced that her nursing was so -tender. When he thought of lying ill and being washed -by Hedvig’s hands he felt cold shivers down his back. -But he took care not to show it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, Hedvig, you are a real saint. But Laura and -Stellan, who never come to see father—and I who—yes, -we shall get our punishment.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Over Hedvig’s face there spread a glimmer of satisfaction.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What kind of punishment will that be?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, father might die, for example. Do you know -what would happen if father dies before Tord is of age? -They will sell the estate for an old song and we shall -become paupers. But if we can keep it we are sure to -be well off, all of us.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter said no more. He only sighed and then he went -back to his room to recover his lost sleep.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That same day old Selamb was moved up into a big, -light and airy room facing east. Peter spied on Hedvig -and received several proofs that his words had taken effect. -She was evidently frightened, for secretly she redoubled -her efforts. Enviously and with a look of silent -reproach to the whole world she watched incessantly over -her father. With a sort of gloomy, obstinate determination -she wore herself out with her cares.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>Peter’s own worry was agreeably relieved. He felt -that he had given the matter into good hands. Sister -Hedvig was now to be numbered among the many that -struggled in the cause of Peter Selamb.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had a habit of stealing in to glance at the old -man now and then. It was quite edifying to see him lying -there washed and brushed between white sheets in the -sparkling sunshine. Peter felt something of the pleasure -of the merchant who goes to his safe and turns over his -gilt-edge securities. One day Peter brought a bunch of -flowers in his hand. Flowers in Peter’s hand! That was, -of course, a piece of pure superstition, the offer of a -bribe to the Powers. His expression was strange, for he -was probably afraid of being found out. But as nobody -was in the room he put the flowers quickly into a glass -and placed them on the bed-table. Then he stood there -quite a long while with his head on one side and he felt -quite moved.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After that there were almost always flowers in the glass -when Peter came. Yes, Hedvig had also begun to pick -flowers. And they did not wither in her hand. No, they -looked perfectly fresh and bright on the bed-table. But -all the same there was a kind of suspicious aversion in -her movements, and she did not like to look at them. -It was all so new and strange. One would scarcely have -recognised the old Selambshof. A stranger coming in for -a few days only would have thought that he was moving -amongst the angels.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The only one who did not like the change was old Selamb. -He had grown accustomed to the dim light, the -dirt, the knocks, and sour faces. This quiet, bright room -worried him in some way. Into his dull brain some -thought of illness and death must have penetrated when -he found himself treated like a feeble invalid. He followed -Hedvig’s silent movements with suspicious glances. -He was stubborn, whined, and indulged in foolish little -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>pinpricks and impotent acts of spite, all of which she -suffered with a secret joy as adding spice to her martyrdom. -But the old man’s hate was especially directed towards -the flowers, that strange innovation that smelt of a -funeral. One day the glass was empty and he pointed -with a grin under the bed. He had thrown them into the -bedchamber.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And so that was the end of the flowers, and indeed -there could never be flowers for long within the four -walls of Selambshof. Peter was not very disappointed. -One can’t always be sentimental. Moreover during subsequent -“vira” parties Peter had made further inquiries -and now knew more. The matter would not be so hopeless -even if his father did die. But he took good care not -to tell Hedvig. There was no harm in being careful.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It now only remained to enlist old Hermansson in the -company of those who lived and worked for Peter Selamb. -He felt that this was where the shoe pinched. But though -he loitered about Ekbacken he still refrained from -approaching the old man. He came over to consult his -guardian about the management of the estate. He did not -directly complain of the bailiff, but he managed to convey -discreetly that the bailiff spent most of his time lying on -his sofa, smoking his pipe. But still the old man did not -grasp his excellent idea of dismissing Inglund and making -the capable and conscientious Peter bailiff.</p> - -<p class='c009'>However much Peter pondered over the matter he could -not guess why old Hermansson was so distant and on his -dignity toward him, whilst he yet seized every occasion to -show his fatherly interest in Stellan. That lazy, supercilious -Stellan who strutted about in his uniform and -sneered and looked important when he occasionally came -home after his idiotic drill. Peter had an economic contempt -for everything in uniform, which showed how simple -he was, and how much he still had to learn from life. If -he had only observed old Hermansson a little more -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>closely, as with his head held high and his hand inside the -lapel of his coat he strutted up and down the avenue by the -side of Stellan with his glittering braid and sword belt, -he would perhaps have understood a good deal better.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Everything striking and challenging stirred Peter’s egoism, -though it still sought to hide itself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Whilst he scratched his head, a thought flashed through -his brain: “If I could think of something sufficiently -mad, perhaps it would work better,” he thought, and soon -after he conceived the brilliant idea that was to bring -matters to a successful issue.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After weeks of careful preparation he marched off one -day to Ekbacken. It was a fine windy day in May and -down at the repairing slip they were just fitting out Herman’s -fine, new cutter. Herman himself was standing -on the pier dressed in the uniform of the Royal Yacht -Club and gave orders to a crowd of lazy-looking youths -who had succeeded the old sailors. Peter shook his head -as he passed. It positively hurt him to see such expensive -toys.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the smoke-room at Ekbacken a card table and an -easy chair were placed between the Marieberg stove and -a new piece of furniture, a mahogany and glass monstrosity -containing coloured silk ribbons and the gilt insignia -of all the secret societies in which the owner of the house -held high rank. There old Hermansson now sat playing -patience.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What do you want here, my friend?” muttered the old -man without looking up from his cards.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, there was something I had to tell you. You -know that it is a very long time since father said anything -rational. But today when I went in to see him as usual -he seemed to have brightened up. He fumbled after my -hand and then he said: ‘You must go and thank my old -friend. You must go and thank old William for all he -has done for old Selambshof.’ Yes, that’s what he said. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>And I felt so strange because it was just as if father -would not have long to live. That was all I wanted to -tell you.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>His guardian looked up from his cards with an expression -of solemn sympathy and quiet reproach:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, well, did he really say that, dear old Oskar? -Yes, it really does me good to hear that there are still -some people who are grateful. I will go and see him as -soon as possible.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter went home contented. A visit was exactly what -he wished for. The following day old Hermansson came. -It evidently affected him to see the invalid. Much moved -and very solemn he walked up to the bed:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning, dear old Oskar!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Selamb grunted something in his beard. He did -not seem specially pleased at the meeting.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How are things with you, old friend? I am ashamed -that I have not been to see you for such a long time.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The invalid was still not interested. Peter had to intervene.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It’s William. Don’t you see, father, that it is William -who has been so good to us all?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, Oskar, you recognise old William, don’t you?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Selamb seemed to be growing impatient. He -looked critically at his old friend:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Seedy,” he muttered, “damned seedy.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter did not like the turn the conversation had taken.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He suddenly sat down on the edge of the bed with his -back to old Hermansson. Then he looked his father full -in the eyes, touched his pocket and showed the corner of -a paper bag. Then the invalid’s face suddenly assumed -a keen, wide-awake and almost human expression, and he -stretched out a trembling hand to his son:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Peter ... look after ... estate,” he muttered, in his -deep, rusty voice. “Peter shall manage the estate....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now he seems to be getting excited again,” whispered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>Peter to old Hermansson. “It is dangerous for him to get -excited. But he usually calms down if he gets something -to chew.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter took some crumbs of cheese out of the paper bag -and gave them to his father, who devoured them with -avidity and then sank into his usual apathy again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Hermansson stood in deep thought. Here lay the -sick friend of his youth on the bed he would never leave. -In a lucid moment he first sends a touching greeting and -then when he came to see him his reason once more flashes -up and he begs help for his first-born. It was almost like -a command from the grave.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter’s guardian seized his hand and pressed it warmly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Old Oskar shall be obeyed,” he said, “you shall manage -Selambshof!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter, alarmed and startled, protested, but the old man -was firm:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You and none else,” he said in a tone that suffered no -contradiction.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he went home to his patience again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had succeeded by a clever use of his father’s insatiable -greed for old cheese with caraway seeds in it. -Day after day he had been sitting there on the edge of -the bed tempting him with a piece of cheese in his hands, -till the old man learnt the formula that opened the gates -of joy to him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It is generally the boldest and stupidest tricks that succeed. -Peter never forgot the caraway cheese. He used -it, as a matter of fact, throughout his life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus half a year later Peter became manager at Selambshof. -He had developed quickly. He began as a -coarse, lumbering, hulking hireling. But this massive -foundation concealed by a certain smiling good temper -and maudlin sentimentality was rather misleading to those -who were not warned by the quick flashes in his cunning -bear’s eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>It was at this point that the firstborn of the family got -the nickname “Peter the Boss,” a name which stuck to him -all his life and under which he was known in wide circles.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus Peter the Boss now sat enthroned in the office at -Selambshof. Now he wandered in the perfection of his -power through the domains of Selambshof, controlled -only by Peter the Boss himself. But he did not swagger. -He did not become an absolute tyrant as old Enoch had -been in his time. He did not worry people too much. -He only had a habit of turning up grinning on the most -unexpected occasions. You never knew where you had -him. There was no possibility of pilfering as in Brundin’s -time. Peter was content with that. His desire was -not power, but possession. There were many things he -reflected upon, but always from the point of view of -“yours” or “mine,” preferably “mine.” And then slowly -he began to walk in Brundin’s footsteps. But without the -boldness and rashness of that “fairy prince.” He felt his -way carefully. He left no traces. He began with modest -schemes. He joked his way through, so that you never -knew when you had him until you suddenly found you -had agreed to something after a jolly evening with cards -and drink. One of the old customers of the estate, for -instance, wanted potatoes at the old price, which was -really too low. Peter laughed at him. But when they -sat down to cards, he said he would be damned if he -shouldn’t have the potatoes if he won that night. In this -way Peter recovered half the difference of price and the -matter was settled in the early morning. Peter pretended -that he settled the business whilst in his cups, and the -other was welcome to think he had got the better of Peter. -Or perhaps some cab proprietor wanted to buy hay. -There was a scarcity of hay that spring—but not at -Selambshof. This was a fine chance for Peter. He -snapped out a very high price. The proprietor offered -two-thirds. Business seemed impossible. But as they sat -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>there hobnobbing with each other they began to argue -about the height of the Eiffel Tower. Peter maintained -it was 300 metres high. If he had not just been reading -about it he would not have mentioned it. The cab proprietor -doubted it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, let us lay a wager,” said Peter. “All right,” -replied the cab proprietor. “A thousand kronor,” said -Peter and winked. But the cab proprietor became -thoughtful.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am like a little child when I have won a wager,” -grinned Peter. The cab proprietor made a rapid calculation -and then agreed to the bet in the cloud of smoke. -And Peter won the bet and the cab proprietor got the hay -at his own price. So you see that even the Eiffel Tower -has its uses.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In this way much business was done in the good old -times.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Soon there was not a single turnip sold but Peter the -Boss managed in some cunning way or other to exact his -toll. The money came rolling in and he already had a -nice little banking account.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But conscience! Did not Peter understand that this was -bad faith towards his principals? Did he not think it -ugly to rob his brothers and sisters in this way? No, -when it came to the point Peter did not think of principals -or brothers and sisters or anything at all in that way. -The whole thing was a matter between himself and Brundin. -Peter was taking his revenge on Brundin, that was -all. He beat the nightmare of his childhood on his own -ground. So strange are our victories sometimes. Peter -felt a delightful relief after each successful coup, a relief -that was almost related to a good conscience.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Meanwhile Peter the Boss grew fatter and more good-tempered -and jovial. He patted Isaksson, the housekeeper, -on the back and lent Stellan, who was always in -a tight corner, money with pleasure. Then he offered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>punch and with his customary luck won the whole lot back -from him again, so that Stellan had to write an I.O.U. -for the double amount, for he had to have the money. -Stellan rose, shrugging his shoulders, when he had written -it and looked contemptuously at his elder brother:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Just like the Jews,” he said in his sneering voice. -“Hang it all, Peter, you do look common. It is so under-class -to become bloated with spirit!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Dear, oh dear!” said Peter in his softest voice, “didn’t -you notice that before you began to play?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It is true that Peter drank a good deal. Spirit and -business melted together with him so that he could not -distinguish one from the other. That was why he always -drank with a good conscience and grew fat with a good -conscience. Because in Sweden in those days it was still -easier for fat people to do business than for thin.</p> - -<p class='c009'>If Peter could think of nothing else he used to put a -bottle in his pocket and march down to Tord, who now -lived in “The Rookery,” with all his crows and snakes -and foxes. He was a queer fish, Tord, but he was always -good enough to drink a glass with. In school he had -made himself impossible long ago, but instead of school -he sat at home reading a lot of bulky old volumes, and -amongst the working people of the estate he was the object -of a certain superstitious reverence on account of his -strange ways and his learning. Then one day he flung -the books on the floor and decided to turn painter—animal -painter. That was after he had taken in another -inmate, a two-legged one this time, a mysterious creature -who seldom appeared in daylight, but who passed for an -artist, a real artist from the Academy. His name was -Eklund and he was an incurable bohemian, contemptuous -of the world, and cynical. Nobody knew where Tord -had caught this fish, but it was probably in some ditch -on the outskirts of the town. Anyhow he was now going -to teach Tord to paint animals.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>Yes, Tord was a queer fellow who sooner or later would -be sure to go to the dogs, but nobody would be any the -poorer for that, at least not Peter, so he could always -drink a glass with him in anticipation of the catastrophe. -And that strange creature Eklund did not spoil -things either. It tasted rather good to drink with such -impossible fellows. Tord did not, of course, talk much—he -usually sat and stared. But with Eklund one could -discuss the profoundest problems, if only he had enough -inside him. He was one of those radical devils who believe -neither in Heaven nor Hell. Peter protested with -inimitable sentimentality against his acid cynicism, but secretly -he enjoyed it. In his inmost heart he had a feeling -it somehow sanctioned his little tricks....</p> - -<p class='c009'>About that time the guardian of Selambshof died.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Hermansson had of late been so unnaturally sound -that he could not have long to live. And one morning -he could not get out of his bed. He had died during the -night from paralysis of the heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At the funeral in the little granite church Herman -sobbed between his two old aunts, his only relations. But -Peter clung instinctively to his sister Hedvig. This was -something in her line, he thought. Here she held the direct -connections. Far away from the cynicism of Eklund -Peter the Boss stood there anxiously wondering if this -business would not bring him some profit in its train. -And had he not been kind to his own aged, sick father, -and had him removed into a better room, and seen to it -that he had the best care? Yes, there in the church Peter -was still making his little efforts to cheat the Almighty. -But out here beside the open grave he grew unctuous. It -was no longer cowardice in face of the last judgment. -That was an exquisite refuge when compared with the -dark hole in front of him. Before the grave every man -is shaken down to his most elementary instincts. Peter -the Boss ate ashes at the thought of creeping down there -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>away from everything that he possessed and would possess. -Fancy having nothing more, absolutely nothing! He -stood there pale and ill with his hat in his hand and -gulped down the lump in his throat like a fish out of -water. He would willingly have sacrificed a whole year’s -salary if he could have got away from it all.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last he sat in his carriage and rolled away from -Death’s domains into those of Selambshof. His sickness -disappeared by and by. He felt with a feverish sigh how -business was resuming its normal sway over his thoughts. -But still he was like a man who, after a dangerous sea -voyage, feels the movement of the sea even though he is -walking on the green earth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a dinner at Ekbacken. To everybody’s -amazement, Peter rose and made a speech. After the -day’s emotions he was very sentimental. Oh, how delightful -it was to let yourself go and to be moved by, and -grateful for, everything, and to be filled with great, beautiful -and solemn emotions. There were no bounds to the -greatness and noble philanthropy of old Hermansson and -to what they all had to thank his noble generous heart for. -Peter then turned to the only son of this great and noble -man. He did not need to describe what Herman was suffering -at that moment. But he must not feel himself alone -in the world. Everybody present suffered with him. And -if it was hard for Herman to throw himself at once into -business in the midst of his grief, he must never forget -that Selambshof lay next door to old Ekbacken. A helping -hand from Peter Selamb would not be lacking when -required....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had tears in his eyes. He was whole-heartedly -a “helping hand.” His emotion was almost genuine, and -he felt that his tears watered soil of which he might himself -reap the harvest.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman had never liked Peter, but had rather avoided -him. But now he had no power of resistance. Childishly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>ashamed of his own tears, he sought cover behind these -of Peter. He believed him because just now he felt the -need of belief in somebody. And there was nobody else -to hand. Stellan was so strangely silent and cold just -now. He was somehow not made to be a consoler. But -Peter overwhelmed him by his rhapsodies, helpfulness, -and his massive vitality overflowing with life and animation. -There were not many moments when he left Herman -alone during the following days. And he used to talk -about Laura. It helped Herman in the bitter loneliness -that fastened upon his still unguarded soul. Twice Laura -had been allowed to go back to her boarding school. -And hitherto she had to a certain extent been right when -she thought that both she and Herman were too young to -get married. But now she was to stay at home, said -Peter. He had telegraphed her on the day of the death -of Herman’s father and could not understand why she -had not come back already. Did she really deserve such -a husband as Herman, such a jolly good fellow, heir to -an honourable name and a substantial fortune? And so -Peter’s thoughts turned to money again. Did Herman -fully realise how rich he was? Ekbacken—oh, it had immense -possibilities! Peter saw them, because he had already -had business experience. And, as he had said -before, he would help Herman in word and deed now -when everything had to be cleared up after the death of -his father.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Everything went as Peter wished. He became administrator -of the estate of the late timber merchant and shipbuilder, -William Hermansson. A week ago he would -have shaken his head at such a possibility. Now the thing -was almost obvious.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Old Lundbom had to supply the necessary expert knowledge. -He was so touched and so flattered when Peter -came and wanted to make him guardian over his father -that he willingly sacrificed his evening hours to clear up -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>all difficulties of the administration. He had managed -Ekbacken’s business practically alone during recent years—but -without having asked for a penny’s increase of -salary. The old man had never realised that one might -be clever on one’s own account too. He was a servant and -nothing but a servant. And now in the midst of his sincere -grief at the death of his beloved old master he took -a childish pleasure in seeing his knowledge of law being -put into practice on such an important occasion.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The winding-up of the estate was entirely Lundbom’s -work. It gave Peter a very interesting insight into the -affairs of Ekbacken and six thousand crowns into the bargain. -At first he made a few diffident attempts to refuse -the money that Herman pressed on him. Herman was -flushed with excitement and very stiff in the back. Had -not the estate shown more than three hundred thousand -crowns assets? Then he supposed he could afford to pay -a friend for his solicitude and care. Peter gave in in -good time and put the cheque in his pocket with a sigh:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thank you, dear Herman! We Selambs are unfortunately -too poor to say no!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>When this matter was settled they walked about a long -time on the estate discussing the future of Ekbacken. -Herman wanted to give up building barges and instead -wanted to build racing yachts of a type that had just won -through. It was a high-class and interesting-quality work. -He would build his own boats and compete for -prizes just as people kept racehorses in their stables. It -would be a fine advertisement and would perhaps interest -Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter looked thoughtful but did not contradict him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They came out on to the highroad, which was dusty and -worn out by the constantly increasing traffic. The heaps -of road metal and the stone-cutters’ sheds were drawing -nearer the old oaks. The town was grinding the hills -around it to powder. Soon the last grey granite fortress of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>Ekbacken would fall. But Herman swore that he would -defend his own idyllic home. There were already plenty -of people who came to him and wanted to buy sites for -factories. But his father’s old Ekbacken must not be split -up and spoilt in that way.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter still did not contradict him. He was absorbed in -deep thought. Suddenly he warmly pressed his future -brother-in-law’s hand:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are a fine fellow, Herman. Damn me, but you are -a fine fellow!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After this Peter the Boss stalked homewards—with the -first great cheque of his life in his pocket he stalked homewards -this cold, still evening in spring. He felt strangely -cool about his forehead, and sometimes he felt as if he were -treading on air. Strange how everything played into his -hands. By making Lundbom guardian he ruled absolutely -at Selambshof. Through Laura he would soon be able to -control Ekbacken. And the town with its thousand possibilities, -crept nearer and nearer with every hour.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span> - <h2 class='c005'>X<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>LAURA’S MARRIAGE</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>For more than two years Laura had been at a boarding -school in Neuchatel. She had been home a few times, -at Christmas and Midsummer, but soon she had contrived -to get away again. It was quite amusing to meet -Herman for a week or two. And it was awfully nice to -have him to think of in lonely and sentimental moments. -But she was afraid to bind herself to him quite definitely.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We can’t marry yet, of course,” she said, “and then it is -better not to wear out each other’s feelings.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was always so delightful to say good-bye to Herman. -His grief did her good. There was always a faithful heart -waiting for her whilst she flew out into the wide world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And it may even have happened that Laura cried a little -in the train.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But it was always with the happiest laughter and the -most excited talk that she rushed back to her school friends. -And she was greeted with delighted shouts of welcome. -For though she had no real friend, she was liked by all. -They never got tired of ruffling her unusual, fair hair, which -in the general opinion, was frightfully pretty. She was the -obvious leader whenever they wanted to throw dust in the -eyes of the poor teachers on returning home too late after -walks or after mysterious expeditions in the dense garden -of an evening. With a mixture of fear and unwilling admiration, -the good German teachers nicknamed her “Die blonde -Lüge.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Had Laura so much to lie about then? Well! perhaps -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>a little flirtation with the students in the town. -But nothing serious. As a matter of fact Laura was very -careful—much more careful than one would have believed -if one had been allowed to read her diary, written in profoundest -secrecy. For there she exaggerated and romanced -in a most charming manner and seized every opportunity to -make herself interesting to herself. Yes, she falsified her -own memoirs, quite gaily and airily. All of which your -moralist would no doubt consider the height of mendacity, -but after all it does not signify very much when you are -at boarding school.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Die blonde Lüge” had nothing to do with a certain little -Polish lady who was packed off because she came home -much too late one evening ... and who received the following -morning a parcel containing neither more nor less -than her corsets.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was a great and mysterious event which became the -subject of endless whispered conversations, when the light -was turned out in the evenings.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>But then there came a telegram and a letter, saying that -old Hermansson was dead and that she must go home. -Then Laura felt at once that the best thing she could do was -to fall seriously in love with her faithful Herman. And -strange to say, it was not at all so difficult to say good-bye -to Neuchatel, as she had thought it would be. The prospect -of meeting Herman alone, free, and independent was quite -agreeable to her. Strange, but it actually seemed as if old -Hermansson had, in spite of all his kindness, stood between -her and Herman. Now she really enjoyed indulgence in -all the romantic sentiments of her diary.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Before Laura left, the idea came to her that she would -become properly engaged to Herman at a distance. This -they did and they exchanged rings by post. It was a sentimental -idea of a schoolgirl conceived in order to impress the -other girls and to make a brilliant exit.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>And so Laura at last returned home to make ready for -the great wedding trip with the luxurious hotels and shops -and the tunnels and moonlight nights. She sat there in the -train and grew more sure of her love for Herman. She -felt a real thrill when she saw him on the platform, a delicious -thrill straight through her heart. He looked so -awfully handsome, refined, and serious in his tall hat and -mourning band, one could not really wish for a better companion -on a wedding trip.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman wanted the wedding to take place in the autumn. -One could not have the wedding immediately after the -funeral.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Summer came, a delightful summer of sunshine, and -Herman was pleasant, devoted and chivalrous. There was -nothing but flowers and admiration and knightly courtesy. -They were out sailing a great deal in Herman’s fine new -cutter, which of course was called “Laura.” Herman himself -had designed the boat and expected a lot from it. He -was known as “The Engineer” at the yard. He had spent a -couple of years at the School of Technology but he had -left it because he was dissatisfied with the instruction. Now -he was sitting there holding the tiller, tall, slim and sunburnt, -wearing the uniform of the Royal Yacht Club, which -was also very becoming. And Laura lay in a white sweater -and white yachting shoes in the sunshine on deck and -thought it was good that he sat and kept a look out with -his faithful blue eyes whilst the ship of their lives elegantly -tacked into the brilliant future.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman entered the boat for several races. Unhappily -owing to a series of annoying accidents, such as bad luck -with the wind, and small breakdowns, he was unable to win -a prize. But anyhow there was open-air dancing afterwards -and a regatta with Chinese lanterns and fireworks. And -Laura came home quite excited with dancing and wine and -the sound of lapping water in a blue darkness full of kisses -and the sound of clinking glasses and songs and hearty -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>curses and bright, sinuous, reflections and sudden bouquets -of light shooting up above the edge of the forests.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was really unreservedly happy during this period. -It seemed as if the happy care-free years down in a Southern -atmosphere had set fire to her and thawed her. She had -acquired a certain sweetness that was unusual under the -skies of Selambshof. During these summer months it -seemed as if Selambshof had lost its power over her. She -hovered laughingly around the coarse and greedy imp, -Peter the Boss. She smiled at Hedvig’s bitter, stiff and -offended airs. She moved like a happy and contented -stranger in and out of this dreary malevolent house, where -the former naughty Laura had once sat drinking vinegar in -order to escape into the world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was just twenty years old. The particular kind -of egoism that comes from bad nerves was completely alien -to her. She blossomed out under kisses, which had not -yet become the serious business of life. It was her season -of roses. All the good elements in her nature had their -great opportunity. Would this soft mellow rose-perfume -penetrate to the core of her being? Where there is a fund -of health there are always possibilities. Things had never -looked so promising.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had taken it into her head that they would take a -flat in town. The idea was constantly in her mind. What -supreme comfort it would be to live amongst restaurants, -shops and theatres with plenty of pin money! She begged -and implored Herman, but on this point he was really immovable. -He felt it would be treason to his dead father to -leave Ekbacken. And lo! Laura yielded like a good child. -She even liked him because he knew his own mind.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She also gave in on another point. She had dreamed -that they would start on their great wedding trip at once. -But Herman, who had a dispute, concerning shore rights, -with the town to attend to, had to wait till the spring, -when the matter would be regulated. He had to defend -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>his dead father’s old Ekbacken. He seemed to gather -strength from the mourning band on his sleeve.</p> - -<p class='c009'>If only that strength had survived a little longer.... -The wedding day came nearer and nearer.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan came home from the summer manœuvres, brought -his heels together with a slight click of his spurs and -greeted his pretty sister with ironical politeness. He had -grown into a witty and elegant young officer. The uniform -was exactly the right mask for his easy cynicism and light -irony. Now he kissed Laura’s hand.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“So you’re going to get married,” he said, “and you’re -sticking to your old lake. What an idyl, my dear Laura.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura snatched her hand away shyly. She somehow -could not answer with a smile. Stellan made quite another -impression on her than the others at Selambshof. He -was the real brother of the old, naughty Laura. Her love -was in some way afraid of him. Yes, she was also afraid -on Herman’s account. Quite instinctively Laura did all -she could to avoid Stellan during the next days, though it -was he who had undertaken all the arrangements for the -wedding.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now the morning of the wedding had arrived. Laura -came for the last time out of the room in which she had -slept as a little girl. She left it without regrets. Selambshof -had never been a home. She remembered how lonely -she had been these last days. Nobody had sat by her bedside -the last night and talked late in whispers far into the -night. She was not afraid. One could not be afraid of -Herman. No, but she had been lying in her bed longing -to have at least a little letter from a school friend to -read.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As Laura walked down the passage she suddenly heard -Stellan’s voice in the smoking room. It must have been -Peter he was talking to, because the replies sounded like -coarse mutterings. She was just stealing past the door -to find Hedvig, for today she felt a strange aversion to meeting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>her brothers alone. But then something made her stop -and listen. She heard her own name and Herman’s pronounced. -“Laura ... she ... will be able to twist the -poor boy round her little finger....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was Stellan’s voice—curiously penetrating—like -drinking iced water. Then she heard Peter mumble in a -thick voice, expressive at one and the same time of satisfaction -and discontent:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There are sure to be difficulties in the long run with -Ekbacken—not a business man at all.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura heard no more, for somebody had begun to hammer -in the hall. For a moment she stood motionless. She -felt a little sick from the smell of freshly scrubbed floors, -which lingered in the dark passage. She suddenly felt the -oppressiveness of the high dismal house again. For a -fraction of a second a strange sensation of being in some -way cheated shot through her. Then she became angry—exceedingly -angry with Stellan and Peter. But she -said nothing, she did not go in to them, but hurried down -to Ekbacken to greet Herman and convince herself that -he was still the same. She remained there so long that he -grew anxious lest she should not have time to dress for the -wedding.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the guests began to arrive. Stellan had managed -to collect quite a fair number of fine folk. The dowager -from Kolsnäs and her son were there. Lähnfeldt’s elegant -carriage drove up to the door. But Percy Hill was abroad -and was only represented by the fine old Dutch master he -had sent as a wedding present. Peter’s contribution was a -collection of the wealthiest customers of Selambshof. -Herman had very few relatives left, except the two old -aunts, who had been at the funeral and who looked very -shy and plain.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig demonstratively put on a dark severe-looking -frock and she spread a chill around her. Tord was not -there. He did not go to bourgeois parties.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>The marriage ceremony was to take place in the hall, -which was decorated with all the bright autumn flowers -the old gardener had been able to collect in the garden.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They had almost succeeded in concealing the shabbiness -and gloom of the room. Laura was late. The clergyman -had already had time to smell the dahlias three times -before she appeared. Her expression had something of -both defiance and anxiety, as if the guests had assembled -there to amuse themselves at her expense. But Herman’s -looks apologized both for the delay and for his having -to stand on the right of his lady.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s voice sounded impatient when she answered her -“yes.” It sounded as if she had been kept waiting at the -booking office window before a long journey.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During dinner she was also nervous. She was silent, and -emptied her glass absent-mindedly, and drummed with her -fingers on the table during the clergyman’s speech. The -speech was somewhat lugubrious. It seemed as if he had -only two speeches to choose from, one for weddings and -the other for funerals, and as if he had fallen on the wrong -one.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s brothers were sitting opposite, further down the -table. There was a challenging and hostile flash in her -eyes, as she looked at them. She suddenly raised her glass -to Peter, who looked like a dressed-up farmhand:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Your health, Mr. Bailiff!” she said. “It feels queer to -be in evening dress, doesn’t it?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Her voice sounded strained. She looked quickly and appealingly -at Herman, who, however, did not seem to understand. -Angry at not receiving any support, though it was -for his sake she was taking her revenge, she now turned -on Stellan. Stellan had placed himself beside Elvira -Lähnfeldt, now a slim and distinguished-looking young -lady, who chatted about horses and tennis. He seemed -to enjoy paying her attention. He did it with the expression -of a man who is already accustomed to succeed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>with the ladies. “Look at me,” he seemed to be saying, -“I am privileged to wear a full dress uniform. I belong -to the few who look dressed up when they wear civilian -clothes. I am born for the good things in life, for pretty -women and a fine setting.” But Laura knew her elegant -brother. She knew how to penetrate his arrogant self-assurance. -Her voice became suddenly tender and affecting:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Stellan,” she said, looking into his eyes over the sparkling -champagne, “Old Hermansson died so suddenly that -neither you nor I had an opportunity of thanking him. -Now as you are sitting with Herman in front of you, I -think you ought to stand up and make a speech to his -father’s memory. For if he had not been so awfully -decent and helped you, instead of being such a really -smart officer and lady’s man as you are now, you would -have been quite an ordinary little bank-clerk or teacher -of mathematics or something equally ridiculous and -civilian!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Miss Lähnfeldt looked as if she had heard something -positively indecent. Stellan bit his lip and grew a trifle -pale. He did not rise, and he made no speech, but he -straightened himself as if to salute and lifted his glass, -without saying a word, to Herman, who looked very embarrassed -and could not understand at all what had come -over his dear Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Laura at once became wildly gay. She had had -her revenge and she could now say good-bye to stupid old -Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She looked smiling over all the flowers and the heads -in order to say a last contemptuous good-bye to the old -dining-room where she had eaten so much porridge and -where they had given each other so many kicks underneath -the table. Then her glance fastened on the portrait of old -Enoch over the green settee. It was more visible than -usual because of two sconces which had been moved in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>from the blue room. The old man stood there with his -steel-capped stick in his thin claw-like hand and fixed -his glance upon her. Laura had never observed before -what scornful, sneering eyes he had. It was as if he -looked straight through her love.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You may wriggle about, my doll, but you can’t get -away from me, anyway.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She took Herman’s hand: “Won’t it soon be over?” -she murmured.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last they said good-bye. Laura was already standing -in the porch dressed in her fur coat. Then she saw -Herman walk up to Stellan and Peter and pat them on the -shoulders. He looked very moved and solemn and magnanimous. -She could understand that he asked them not -to be annoyed with her. Stellan shrugged his shoulders, -and she could see by his lips what he answered:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Stage-fright....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the silence of the cold star-lit autumn night was -broken by a roar of deep bass voices, and then there was -the pattering of rice against the carriage windows and a forward -jerk of the horses.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura flung herself into Herman’s arms. She wanted to -flee away from something at any cost—as if she did not -want to see anything or know anything.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The following day Hedvig came in to Peter, who was -lying on the sofa with a pipe that had gone out in the -corner of his mouth, feeling a little stale after the wedding -celebrations which he and his companions had continued -noisily until the early morning. Hedvig came slipping -in and looking paler and more severe than ever. Peter -felt really frightened of her. He felt like a big, swollen -gland which has secreted the worst excretions of sin.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You will have to get somebody else to nurse father,” -said Hedvig, “I am not going to stay here any longer. -There is nothing but dissipation and vileness. Nobody -seems to think that we may be dead tomorrow. I am -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>going to take a course in nursing and then I shall join -the Red Cross.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter began to fear new unforeseen expenses. He -begged and prayed, he clumsily touched on all sorts of -points. Finally he stretched out a finger and poked it -into the region of her heart:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hedvig, dear, one fine day you will also get married.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stopped dead. He felt as if he had sandpaper -in his throat. Hedvig stood motionless and stared at him, -with loathing in her eyes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are disgusting” she said, in a low voice. “I hate -all men. I will never, never marry!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And with that she left the room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A fortnight later Hedvig had started as a probationer at -a hospital. And she never put her foot inside Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter did not know if he felt this as a loss or relief. -Sometimes he felt as if his bad conscience had left him. -Sometimes he felt a little alarmed. With the departure of -Hedvig he seemed to have lost his last connection with -“The Powers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Mrs. Laura at Ekbacken was very annoyed when -Peter stalked in one day and told her about Hedvig’s -new move.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It really is a pity about Hedvig,” the little wife exclaimed. -“Just think how really beautiful she can be -sometimes, Herman. It almost hurts one. Couldn’t we -find her a husband some way or other, Herman dear?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Mrs. Laura still lived on her honeymoon and she thought -that all people ought to marry.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman moved away the pink silk ribbon of her coquettish -boudoir cap and kissed her hair:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“She is as pretty as anyone can be who is not fair,” he -whispered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>By now Peter had gone again. This sort of thing was -unbearable. They don’t care a straw either for me or -Hedvig, he thought sadly in his loneliness. But wait a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>little, Laura has still got claws in her silky hands. Herman -will feel them soon enough.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This thought consoled him a little.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>The honeymoon was scarcely over before Mrs. Laura -realised that there would be no wedding trip that spring.</p> - -<p class='c009'>No, she was definitely cheated of it, cheated of her grand -wedding trip. She had not imagined things would turn -out like that. This might possibly have been permitted to -occur in the remote future, but just now she had desired -nothing but happy surprises.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At first Laura told Herman nothing. She felt that it -would be humiliating to admit her condition. But she observed -him secretly. She watched for a searching or a triumphant -expression in his face. Has he been expecting -this? Was he only playing with me when he spoke about -the wedding trip, she thought. And she felt something in -her heart that almost resembled dislike. But then it struck -her how sad and strange and really impossible it was that -she was feeling dislike of her <i>own</i> Herman. And then she -went down to the office and let him kiss her behind old -Lundbom’s back. But she was not yet able to speak about -it. She felt a strange cold shame at her condition. In -her there was nothing groping with tender hands towards -the new life. It was as if this tender seed of life had been -growing outside her and not beneath her heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After a few weeks Laura had no need to decide whether -to tell or not—she simply could not hide it. She felt -sick and she could not for ever run away and hide every -morning. Laura had never been ill since she had the -measles as a child. She felt a cold dread. It was as if -her body were insulted every day. In her mirror she -seemed to see how ugly and pale she was already growing. -Still Herman said nothing. He was only doubly tender and -attentive. But Laura saw all the same a flash of irritating -pride and satisfaction in his eyes. And she turned away -and set her teeth. What sort of a knight was this whose -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>kisses at once produced sickness. She seemed to feel his -pride like a pain within her. And then a torrent of complaints -and accusations broke from her. Herman had -cheated her out of her wedding trip! And she had not -been allowed to live in town, as she wanted! And now she -was ill, awfully ill! And she was getting ugly, old and -ugly! And soon she would probably be dead—Yes, this -would certainly mean her death!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman made no reply to all these accusations, which -induced in him a solemn mood. He stroked her hair -softly and calmly as one would in putting a crying child -to sleep. And in the end Laura could find no other place -than his arms in which she could cry out her heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After a time she grew calmer. The first crisis was over. -It looked as if she would submit to her fate with a certain -equanimity.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One dark and wet December day Laura was sitting in the -bedroom window sewing some small garments. She always -locked the door so as not to be taken by surprise. -The sewing did not amuse her, but she did it in order to -pass the time.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Ugh!” she had pricked her finger. She stared at the -red drop of blood, and with a long sigh let the sewing -fall into her lap.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Out of doors it was drizzling from the grey winter sky. -Through the bare lilac hedge Laura could see the yard. -There lay the cutter, their cutter, drawn up forlorn under -its ugly unpainted cover. Their beautiful summer cutter! -It looked like a butterfly with the wings pulled off, and -the crutches were its legs. It suddenly occurred to Laura -that the boat had never won a prize. There had always -been something to prevent it. Supposing it was not so -finely designed and built after all!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura suddenly felt terribly depressed at this thought. -She could not understand herself why she felt so sad. She -rose up groaning and went to her chest of drawers. In -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>the bottom drawer beneath her chemises and bits of ribbon, -there lay a small locked box. She found the key hidden -amongst her jewellery. Then she took out her diary, the -romantic diary from Neuchatel, and sat down to read it -from beginning to end. She hastened nervously through -its pages and it seemed as if she had jumped with great anxious -strides back into the past. But there was no refuge -there. She could not help sneering at all that sloppy, -girlish nonsense. No, the past was past. As she was turning -a page, a drop of blood fell on it. Laura threw -away the book. Then she saw that there were many drops -of blood on her light grey dressing gown also. “Blood,” -she thought with a shiver. “I shall give my blood. I -shall suffer and sacrifice myself for another. People say -that it is a splendid and glorious sensation. But I am not -made that way. Herman must teach me. He must treat -me more severely—bend me to it—.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura dashed on her fur coat and galoshes and flew -down to the office where Herman sat talking to Lundbom -about the lawsuit, which looked as if it would be prolonged.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman did not handle her firmly. He was only -kind and indulgent and gave her much well-meant advice: -“You must not go about thinking of disagreeable things: -you must just make yourself comfortable and let me look -after you.” And then he telephoned for theatre tickets for -the evening.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman did not understand that he had a soul to fight -for, a soul round which the magic circle was about to close -again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura could not help pondering over this lawsuit, over -the shore rights. If Herman had not allowed it to interfere -she would now have been on her wedding trip. And -then all this would not have happened. No! then this -would not have happened. How Laura arrived at this conviction -seems strange, but, as we all know, our most sensible -thoughts are not the most persistent ones.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>Laura began to hate that lawsuit. Sometimes it almost -seemed as if she wanted Herman to lose it. What if she -should go over to Peter and talk it over with him for a -moment. For the first time Laura had a certain furtive -feeling of attraction to Selambshof. She had not been -there since her wedding. But now the spirit of family -called gently to its erring child.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sat in his office writing in his books. The room -was thick with tobacco smoke and Peter the Boss looked -so coarse and vulgar that Laura at once dismissed all the -subterfuges she had thought out.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Herman’s lawsuit?” muttered Peter, “well, between -ourselves, I should have settled the matter while the door -was still open. The Town Council offered forty thousand -for the little strip of shore and it was a fine offer. If -Herman had accepted, they would never have found out -that his title was doubtful. It all hangs on some old -papers dating from the eighteenth century, and then justice -is like a lottery. But Herman won’t give up the least bit -of Ekbacken of his own free will, and of course that’s -very fine of him—but, if one wants to strike fine attitudes...!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter leered with half-closed eyes through the smoke, -with his dull peasant cunning. Compared with Herman, -Peter looked a real monster. But all the same Laura -listened attentively to his words. She waited greedily -for a shrug of his shoulders or a note of tolerant contempt, -in order that she might, as she thought, become angry -with him and say something really nasty. But in point of -fact she was seeking with a strange sort of hunger to effect -a secret reconciliation with something within herself, -something that had been concealed by the rosy veil of her -foolish sentimentality.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On her way home Laura stopped in the course of the -avenue by the big oak which she and Stellan had tricked -Herman into climbing. “Were you hoarse yesterday, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>Herman?” Oh! how furious she was with her husband -for having allowed himself to be tricked that day!</p> - -<p class='c009'>For several days she went about at Ekbacken looking -at Herman from hiding places and ambushes. She felt a -stranger to him as she beheld his open countenance. A -certain expression of unperturbed self-confidence in him -annoyed her in some way. What was he really so confident -about? He does not listen or watch, nor does he -fight to defend me and mine, she thought. Why is he not -cleverer and quicker than Peter and Stellan? Why does -he not look through them? Why does he not look -through me? Laura had a strange feeling of the insecurity -of Herman’s position—that there was a conspiracy -against him, against them. And she had an irresistible -desire to arouse him, to perturb him, and goad him on -with insidious words. They were sitting planning summer -yachting trips, when she suddenly exclaimed:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Fancy if you could explore a little ashore too, Herman.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>When that shaft missed its mark she began to prophesy -losses and misfortunes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am sure you will lose that stupid lawsuit, Herman.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman replied by placing a shawl over her shoulders. -Then she seized the most dangerous weapon she could -think of and told him of the conversation she had overheard -between Stellan and Peter on her wedding day:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Just fancy! they said that you were not a business man -at all, Herman; that you were a good-natured simpleton -that anyone could twist round his little finger. That’s -what they said, and I think they ought to pay for that. -You ought somehow to put them down a peg.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>However strange it may sound, Laura was nevertheless -still fighting for her love when she spoke like this. It -was the last spasm of her feeling for him. But Herman -understood nothing. He only became serious and pulled -a face for a moment. Then he dismissed the subject:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>“Nonsense, child, you misunderstood them. How can -you imagine such a thing. Near relations like that! -Besides I have stolen from them the best thing they had, -their pretty sister.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He wanted to kiss her on the neck, but Laura pushed -him violently away from her and ran into the bedroom, -seized by an unreasoning frenzy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The last months before the birth of the child were very -difficult for Herman. He was exiled from the bedroom -into the smoky atmosphere of the study, where he had to -sleep on a sofa. He was a ridiculous, superfluous and -disagreeable person in his own home. Even the maids -were rude to him. He went about in a constant state of -nervousness in this house where he was the only man. -The poor fellow did not revolt, but his face grew longer -and longer. He busied himself with his beloved cutter, -since he was not allowed to busy himself with Laura. -Above all he felt a compelling need to go and amuse himself -with his summer things. It was as if he were still -a child, longing for the promise of the summer holidays. -He still cherished their semblance of liberty without responsibility. -But in the evening he took refuge in spirit -and his father’s game of patience—hoping that his beloved -and exquisite Laura would return to him after the -birth of her child.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Laura lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. She -was full of bitterness and disappointment. Something -within her that had been deliciously softened now hardened -again and left a scar behind. She was full of anger -against Herman, who was not man enough to break down -her egoism; who gave her a child but was unable to make -her feel a mother.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was very ill towards the end. She felt her pains -and her helplessness as direct insults by Herman. Sometimes -she almost went mad with fear at her approaching -delivery. For a woman whose being is cramped by egoism -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>the agony of childbirth is doubly terrible. There is -no joy in the suffering. It is martyrdom without faith. -After a struggle of three days she gave birth to a boy. -When they wanted to place the child beside her, she pushed -it away with her last remaining strength:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Take it away,” she muttered, “I don’t want to see it.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was the first day. Afterwards she calmed down -and showed a certain interest in her child. But she could -not bear to hear it cry. Then it had to be taken away -into another room at once. And she could not be persuaded -to suckle the newborn child. Thus far Nature had forced -her, but now at last she could say “No.” Oh what a joy -to be able to say “no” at last!</p> - -<p class='c009'>When a mother is not delivered of her egoism it grows -sevenfold worse.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There is something mysterious in the quick recovery of -women after child-birth. In a week and a half Mrs. -Laura was up again, well and flourishing, more beautiful -than ever, without any trace of all the suffering that she -had passed through—at least no outward traces. She -made a very charming picture with her son, when she occasionally -condescended to bend over his bed and pat his -cheek. Herman, who had already forgiven her for not -wanting to suckle their little Georg, was quite ready with -his admiration and chivalrous attentions to the young -mother.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Laura accepted the homage calmly and unmoved.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman was still a very young man. He could not go -about for ever satisfied with the sensation of being a -happy father. There came a moment when he wanted to -receive some of the gracious caresses that were occasionally -bestowed on little Georg. He found something especially -bewitching in Laura’s new fulness, in the milky -whiteness of her skin, in her lazy, contented, catlike purring -after the storm she had passed through. But he was -far too sensitive to behave roughly. And there was something -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>in that purring that made him a little shy and -timid. He went about with a new and hesitating love as -if he were the fiancé of his own wife. He seized every -opportunity to pay her little attentions and to make her -little presents which she graciously deigned to accept. -Soon, Herman thought, I shall be a happy man again. -But Laura smiled and shrugged her shoulders. She was -playing with her tall fiancé. She gave him her little finger. -But when he suddenly wanted the whole hand she -shook her head and said “no,” a pitiless purring little -“no.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman reproached himself. “I have not behaved -properly,” he thought. “I have been too rough and -hasty.” And then once more he played the chivalrous -fiancé for a while, and tried to get her out in the yacht -as he did last summer, but no! the lake amused her no -longer. Then he heaped amusements, jewels, and pretty -clothes upon her. She developed a studied coquetry and -opened out boldly in the sunshine.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now it was their wedding day. Herman waited on her -with an enormous bunch of red roses; he appeared at -dinner in full dress and drank her health in champagne -and appealed to their sweet memories. At last he thought -she would be able to celebrate the anniversary of their -wedding. For a moment Laura seemed touched. But it -was only the champagne. At the last moment she turned -away from him, froze up, and talked of her delicate -health, of an uncontrollable anxiety, and held up the child -as a shield between herself and her husband. And then the -key grated in the bedroom door and Herman was shut out.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura sat down on the edge of her bed and slowly picked -Herman’s roses to pieces. She felt that she would never -again belong to him. It was not only cowardly selfishness -in face of the new demands of life. She was no -longer afraid, because her body had already forgotten. -No, she no longer wanted to belong to <i>him</i>. It was the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>air itself here at old Hermansson’s Ekbacken that did not -suit her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura flicked away the last rose petal. “He allowed me -to lock the door,” she thought, with a shrug of her shoulders, -“I am much stronger than he is.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It is dangerous for a woman of Laura’s temperament to -begin to think like that.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Herman’s wounded pride did not rebel, he did not seek -any revenge. He was miserable, and in despair. He fell on -his knees and begged and entreated her, humiliated himself -before her. And then she despised him, grew tired -of him, and became cruel, deliberately cruel, so that afterwards -she was half surprised at herself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman flew to drink and neglected his work. All ordinary -business was of course still in Lundbom’s hands -but Herman supervised the building on the slips. Now -he roamed about brooding and gloomy, gave orders and -counter-orders, began to quarrel with his men and then -suddenly he threw it all up and went down to stare at the -dump. Yes! that had been the result of his lawsuit. The -ground over which the town had acquired the shore rights -was his, but they had begun to fill in the lake in order -to build a quay. Barge after barge came along with -broken china and bricks, rubbish, and sweepings. The -evil smelling dump already stretched far out into the -lake. One could see it all from the windows of Ekbacken -and the comfort of the old place was gone. Herman -would stand there for hours with his hands in his pockets, -and reflect with a certain melancholy pleasure how the -town dumped its rubbish there under his very nose. Then -he would go inside and sit down and drink.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Once when he was half drunk he struck Laura, when -for the fiftieth time she cast the unsuccessful lawsuit in -his face. It was a feeble hesitating blow that only recoiled -on his own suffering heart. But Laura accepted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>it with secret satisfaction. She had already begun to plan -how she might escape with the greatest possible profit -from this besieged fortress, whilst retaining all the honours -of war.</p> - -<p class='c009'>An unhappy marriage is the finest arsenal of egoism. -In the constant clash of two wills, selfishness sharpens its -edge, and in the suffering of an opponent tempers its steel.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura developed surprisingly fast. It was not long before -she understood with masterly cunning how to push -Herman to extremes and to make him compromise himself -seriously whilst she herself wisely kept quiet. It was she -who encouraged him to seek men’s company and to amuse -himself in town so that he should be spoken of as a reveller -and a drunkard. Finally it was she who in devious -ways reminded him that the world was full of women and -thus furtively placed in his hands an instrument of revenge -for her coldness. Otherwise Herman would never have -been able to make up his mind. He was, as it were, hypnotised -by her. Certainly it seemed as if it was directly -by her secret influence that he threw himself with the courage -of despair, and without a spark of desire, into the arms -of a waitress at the nearest public house. But all the -same, some childish hopes of making Laura jealous must -have seized him, for a woman’s voice began to ask for him -on the telephone and the poor boy tried to look provokingly -cheerful when he answered. These conversations on -the ’phone were followed by nights out which in their turn -were followed by forced explanations which Laura had -never asked for. Finally, in order to reveal the situation -quite clearly to her, he began to forget and leave lying -about short incriminating notes where Laura must find -them. She almost felt sorry for him. But anyhow she -took great care of the letters.</p> - -<p class='c009'>With a selection of these documents in her little silk -bag Laura now paid a visit to Selambshof. She went off -in a state of clear, cool exhilaration like a business man -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>who is about to settle up a difficult piece of business. It -seemed as if she wanted to gather strength amidst the old -surroundings before the decisive battle. But all this did -not prevent her from playing the martyr, a rôle that was -really more pleasant than she had anticipated. Even when -confronting Peter the Boss it had its satisfaction, though -she felt that he looked through her completely. Peter, -of course was disgusting. She was almost ashamed to -meet him in the streets in town. And all the same here -in his office she felt a strange affinity to him. Yes, it was -almost like quenching one’s thirst to look at his coarse -ugliness. And now she suddenly knew instinctively that -their wishes concerning Herman coincided.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura presented her husband’s compromising letters -with a tragic mien and she soon saw Peter’s eyes looking -at her with almost frightened admiration. “How the -deuce have you already brought him so far?” they seemed -to ask. But meanwhile he poured forth expressions of -good-natured and sentimental commiseration, in much the -same way as a dog dribbles when it catches sight of a -rich piece of food. But afterwards he showed his teeth:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Valuable papers,” he muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It came out so suddenly that Laura had some difficulty -in preserving her mien of martyrdom.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Of course I can no longer live with Herman,” she -sighed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“These letters are worth at least a hundred thousand,” -said Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I want to know how to set about getting a divorce. It’s -probably a dreadful business.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter thought for a moment and then he brightened up:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I will speak to Lundbom. He knows everything.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Lundbom?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, Lundbom’s the man. He won’t suspect that it -concerns you two. He is absolutely blind to everything -personal.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>In spite of her martyr’s air Laura laughed low:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hum! That really would be rather funny.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had a free consultation with Lundbom at their next -card party. Lundbom saw no escape for the faithless -spouse; either hopeless and scandalous divorce proceedings -or a friendly settlement with a promise to surrender -the children and a handsome allowance.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Armed with this information Laura made a great scene -with Herman. Now all of a sudden she pretended to be -insulted, in despair, and mortally wounded in her wifely -dignity. She took the matter in such deadly earnest and -was so absorbed in the dramatic situation that she almost -began to believe in her feelings herself. Herman was -aghast. His first feeling was one of wild joy that she had -after all suffered, that she still loved him. This made -him forget that it was she herself who had placed his -revenge in his hands. But after her first outburst Laura -continued more calmly, with profound reproach in her -tone. Herman might have waited for her. A little patience -only and everything would perhaps have been -all right between them again. “You might have excused -a poor woman who has had to pass through so -much.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was magnificent when she said all this. Her -words fell like molten lead on Herman’s heart. He confessed -his helplessness, his despair at his indulgence in -spirits, and his disgust at his sorry folly with the other -woman, who had never given him a moment’s relief. He -was filled with a deep despair and remorse and begged -her forgiveness with tears streaming from his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was the old, banal, and horrible struggle, in which -the result is a foregone conclusion, the struggle between -the one who loves and the one who is loved.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was merely irritated by Herman’s tears. Did -she suspect that they sprang from sources which in her -had already dried up? Was that why her tone was so hard -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>and dry? When one cannot be Love one wishes to be Fate. -Oh! there was a secret luxury in standing there stiff and -unyielding:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You have killed my love,” she said, “I want a divorce -and I shall take Georg. You have no right to refuse.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman staggered as if he had been struck in the face. -The violence of the blow prevented him from seeing how -the whole thing had been pre-arranged.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He stood there gazing around him in front of an image -of stone and muttered alternate prayers and curses till at -last he ran out of the room, slamming the door behind -him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman could not get away from the fact that -Laura had everything beautifully arranged. She had public -opinion on her side, she had witnesses and letters. If -he wanted to escape the horrible divorce proceedings he -must accept her conditions. So he had to take the familiar -journey to Copenhagen and give up little Georg, -and mortgage Ekbacken heavily in order to purchase a -nice little annuity for his wife.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He stayed on in his lonely home with a bleeding hatred. -Sometimes he did not know whether it was hatred or love. -But Laura made a triumphant entry with baby and annuity -into an elegant little flat in Karlavägen, in the same -house as Stellan had his little two-roomed bachelor flat. -She was determined to enter society in order to amuse herself -and for this purpose Stellan’s brother officers and his -circle of fine friends might be invaluable for a divorced -young wife.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The very evening that Laura moved in, she went down to -see Stellan:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I did not stay at the old lake,” she said, “and the little -idyl did not materialise.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, no!” said Stellan. “Shall we play a game of -écarté?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And they did.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span> - <h2 class='c005'>XI<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE SPANISH SAINT</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>One fine day in September Stellan Selamb, lieutenant -of the Göta Guards, was out at field manœuvres at -Lidingön with his platoon. They had already during -the cool and clear morning hours practised advancing -in open formation through the broken brushwood to the -right of the main road, when he gave over the command -to the sergeant and, consulting his map, began to climb a -steep hill path to make an attack on his own. After some -searching he found another new cross road which brought -him to a large, new and somewhat strange looking house, -which lay alone in the midst of the dense pine wood.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan did not associate with architects and did not -usually pay much attention to houses. But he was accustomed -to safe old manor-houses which seemed to have -grown out of the ground where they were stood. This -house on the contrary looked as if it had fallen down from -the sky with its dazzling white walls broken up in a fantastic -way and its bright green roof! It was positively difficult -to tell whether it was meant for a temple, a sanatorium, -a museum or perhaps even an ordinary house. Anyhow -Stellan hammered the antique knocker against a huge black -church door densely studded with coarse nails.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A groom opened the door.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The master is in bed, but I am to announce visitors all -the same.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He disappeared but returned at once with the message -that if the lieutenant would look at the pictures for a moment -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>his master would receive him. Stellan walked through -several large rooms full of pictures, like picture galleries.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Some of them he knew from Percy’s old flat in town, but -most of them had probably been bought during his last -long journey abroad. There was both ancient and modern -art, Spanish and Dutch masters and some of the most modern -impressionists, but he could discover no trace of Percy’s -own canvases.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Just like him,” Stellan thought, “they are of course relegated -to some old boxroom.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last the door into the bedroom was opened. There -lay “The China Doll.” It was the same thin, refined face -as before. And the same little smile, amiable, gentle and -slightly reserved. Only the blue of the eyes was not as cool -as before.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning, Percy, old man, I happened to have -field exercises in the neighbourhood and thought I would -have a peep at your new Tusculum.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“O, I am so pleased when somebody is kind enough to -look in.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy’s voice sounded strangely fragile. But Stellan did -not notice it. He was so accustomed to see Percy ill. -Having looked closely at the bedroom he suddenly burst -out laughing. It was black and white with a vaulted ceiling -and heavy carved oak furniture. The chairs seemed -completely taken up with their own ornament and would -no doubt have looked upon the back of anyone sitting down -on them as a desecration. Percy’s bed resembled most -nearly a catafalque and it was standing in an alcove which -looked like a chapel in the church of “The Third Kingdom.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I say, this looks rather as if it was prepared for the -eternal sleep,” Stellan exclaimed. “For a marble statue.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy’s smile was a shade more wan.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, perhaps you are right....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan opened the door of a W. C. which the uninitiated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>would have taken for some kind of confession box. He -suddenly grew furious and felt a desire to say something -indecent; he wisely kept it back however.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Excuse me, Percy, old chap, but do you really feel at -home here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I can’t say I do.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, then, why the devil do you have it in this style, -then?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy looked at the ceiling of the alcove which was -painted all over with pentagrams and spirals.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, my architect did it,” he muttered resignedly. -“He wanted it like this. And I dared not oppose him. It -is so difficult when you are not able to say that you cannot -afford it. It brings so many responsibilities. Do you -know, Stellan, I don’t think it is possible really to will -something, really to be something for your own sake if -you have lots of money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan thought that if that was the difficulty he was ready -to ease him of his burden.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Poor Percy,” he laughed sarcastically. “The prisoner -of wealth, for life.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But then he remembered the refined little boy dressed in -white behind the gates at Stonehill. And it struck him that -there might perhaps be a bitter blighting truth in his exclamation. -And that Percy perhaps was a shade more serious -this time than usual. Stellan drummed, a little embarrassed, -on the rough carved block of black oak that constituted -the foot of the bed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I say, Percy, how are you really?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy smiled an apologetic smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, to be frank, I had a rather serious hæmorrhage -of the lungs a week and a half ago ... my chest has -always been weak, you know.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>For various reasons Stellan was horrified:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But your footman did not tell me so. I had not the -slightest idea that....”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>“Well, I don’t want to advertise my illness.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What does the medicine man say?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He shakes his head and says that I must lie quiet in bed -for the present, only lie quiet.... But dash it all, Stellan, -don’t take it so seriously. I myself am rather pleased. -I have never been anything but a dilettante. But this will -perhaps be my opportunity. A real danger! An honest -compulsion! Sometimes I feel as if I would really be able -to do something after all. Oh, there is a curious excitement -in the fever and the imminence of death.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was just pondering how best in these circumstances -he might decorously prepare Percy for the comparative -relief to be derived from backing a bill for five thousand. -Then a head with fair straggling hair and broad -good-natured features peeped in through the door and disappeared -again with a smile of apology at the sight of Stellan. -It was the nurse. There were red spots in Percy’s -cheeks and his voice sounded worried and nervous:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If you knew how I suffer from that woman,” he whispered. -“She is not at all unkind to me. On the contrary. -But I can’t stand people with that sort of stolid face. I -shiver when she touches me.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why don’t you send her away?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, it is so difficult. I can’t bring myself to do it. -Once she is here she has certain claims on me.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy was silent for a moment, then he stretched out his -hand entreatingly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Perhaps you could help me, Stellan? Hasn’t the Army -some connection with the Red Cross? Oh, if you could -find me in some way a more bearable face!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan suddenly had an idea, a strange half-impossible -idea which, however, at bottom seemed to him to be curiously -charged with infinite possibilities. “Hedvig!” he -thought. “Hedvig!” He had to make an effort to recover -his normal, smooth and kindly tone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I could speak to my sister Hedvig,” he said. “She is a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>nurse. But I tell you beforehand that she has a sombre and -strange temper. But her face is really something for an -artist to look upon.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy became quite excited and was filled with touching -gratitude:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“A face, a temperament, a human being! Oh, how grateful -I should be to you!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good, I’ll speak to her if she can get free. Anyhow -this grinning monster must be got rid of!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With this Stellan took a warm good-bye. But at the door -he turned round with his most charming and unconcerned -expression.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“By the way, Percy, I am going about with a damned -little bill in my hip pocket. You would not like by any -chance to put your scrawl across it?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“With pleasure, old boy, with pleasure.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan stepped whistling out of Hill’s villa and, in excellent -temper, resumed his command over his dusty and -perspiring platoon.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The same evening Stellan went to see Laura. He had -got into the habit of running up to her to talk things over -before he settled anything important.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was dressing to go to the theatre. He helped her -to fasten her frock behind.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Percy has had a hæmorrhage of the lungs and is dissatisfied -with his nurse. I offered to get Hedvig for him. -What do you think about it?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Poor Percy!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But how shall I persuade Hedvig?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You must talk about sacrifice, and give her an opportunity -to look long-suffering.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan rang up the Red Cross at once. There he was -given another telephone number and rang again. A weak -tremulous voice replied:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Sister Hedvig? Yes, I’ll tell her.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>Hedvig came to the telephone. Stellan presented his -case. He made Percy as ill as possible and begged her to -sacrifice herself for their old friend. Hedvig’s distant -voice assumed a peculiarly hard resigned note.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I don’t think I can.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But why?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, at least not at once.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She lowered her voice:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, it won’t be ... all over here for another few -days....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All over!” Then a human being lay dying at the -other end of the wire! Stellan felt a cold shiver. He -looked at Laura, who sat there in low-cut evening frock -polishing her nails. He looked around him in the coquettish -little room. All over in a few days. All over! How -curiously Hedvig had said that. It was as if she had -wanted to force the thought of death on him like a tablespoonful -of medicine.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, ... I may tell poor Percy that you will come -when you ... you are free?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, I suppose I must give up my idea of resting a -little.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then she rang off.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan hung up the receiver.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, she will go to Percy as soon as her present patient -has had time to die. And it is Hedvig who is leading -such a life! Really I can’t understand it....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura pursed up her lips whilst she pulled on her -glove. She looked unusually free from any sentimentality -at that moment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hedvig is frightened,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan felt nervous.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Frightened? Damned funny way of being frightened. -What do you really mean?”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>Laura’s answer came short, sharp and pleased. One -could see how she had worried about this matter and at -last found a satisfactory explanation:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Who is it that runs about in the cemeteries at midnight?” -she said. “Precisely those who are afraid of ghosts. -Others have no business there.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then Mrs. Laura went to the theatre.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was a fact that for a year and a half past Hedvig -had been a trained Red Cross nurse and that she was -already one of those who was sent to the more difficult -cases and that she herself desired it so.</p> - -<p class='c009'>To her fellow nurses she was an enigma. They felt -at once that she was not one of those simple good women -whose hearts call them to serve, care for, and struggle -against suffering and death. As they knew that she had -gone straight from her sister’s wedding to the hospital the -younger nurses at once concluded that Hedvig’s secret -was unrequited love, but the older and more experienced -nurses shook their heads.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The doctors also discussed Sister Hedvig. Men will -always discuss women such as Sister Hedvig. After long -discussions which were not free from criticism, though they -were supposed to be scientific, they too, turned to love as -explanation. And they of course protested against such -childish nonsense as women’s talk of an unhappy love. -A young psychiatrist had the word last. He said nothing -cynical. He would perhaps have done so ten years earlier. -But now cynicism was no longer the fashion—at least -among the psychiatrists—that was left to the surgeons -and other humbler craftsmen.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Sister Hedvig,” the young doctor said, “is a very interesting -case. As a matter of fact she cannot look a -healthy man full in the eyes. But all the same she at -once chose the male division in the hospital. She simply -had to go there, she was really incapable of doing her duty -to the women patients. What else is that but a case of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>timid, wounded, sickly eroticism slinking away to sick -people. She feels a secret relief in seeing men suffer and -die. She sacrifices them to Eros—probably by a religious -perversion of her feelings.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus spoke the young doctor and did not observe his -own involuntary confession of having looked very deep -into Sister Hedvig’s eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Perhaps there was something in what he said after all. -Though Laura had probably said the truest word. The -fundamental fact in Sister Hedvig’s nature was still fear. -And this fear had not, as in Peter’s case, spread over the -surface in the shape of pretended good nature and a magnificent -tissue of lies. No, in Hedvig it grew inwards in -the dark. And this growth she felt as an ever-present -gnawing ache in her inmost being. In the end this dark -groping fear had become so much a part of her that every -glimpse of happiness, liberty, spaciousness only seemed to -her a mockery. But her suffering was terrible just because -of its indefiniteness, its formlessness and its teeming -darkness. Under these circumstances she must have felt -every really definite cause for fear as a sort of relief, a -release. He who sees, need not brood. That was why -the sick bed and the death bed held such a strange attraction -for her. That was why her expression would -sometimes reveal such curious relief in the presence of -the most awful struggles. That was why she closed the -eyes of the dead with such pale and still solemnity. She -herself interpreted it as the brief precious peace of heart -before God after service and sacrifice. During her training -as a nurse Sister Hedvig had turned more and more -away from the world and relapsed into religious gloom. -She walked about like a living protest against every form -of levity and vanity.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And now she stood on a cold and clear September day -by Percy’s bed at Hill Villa.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy stared at her dark eyes and pale cheeks. It was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>really an unusual pallor. One did not know whether -she burned or froze.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“And so you are Stellan’s sister,” he muttered. “We -must have met, as children at least, when I was still living -at Stonehill. Strange that I did not notice your looks, -then.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have always kept apart,” she answered coldly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy smiled a little apologetic smile.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But now ... now Sister Hedvig comes here and -wants to help me, poor wretch....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I will try to do my duty,” answered Sister Hedvig.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy sank back with half-closed eyes on his pillow. -It suddenly seemed to him inconceivable that a woman -with such a face should witness his frailty, help him to -change his shirt and reach him the basin. “I shall have -a high temperature this evening,” he thought. “But that -doesn’t matter. I shan’t be bored anyhow.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig left the sick room on some errand. When she -came back Percy had already managed to allot a place -to the newcomer in his world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now I have got it,” he said contentedly. “Sister Hedvig -is a Spanish saint. Yes? I have seen Sister Hedvig -hanging on a church wall in Toledo.... Or perhaps -it is something Byzantine,” he added thoughtfully. “Yes, -you would look well in a mosaic ... on a ground of -gold ... or perhaps a cold greenish blue....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sister Hedvig received this speech, which was to her -partly incomprehensible, partly offensive, in silence. She -had never before met a dilettante patron of art of Percy’s -type. She was highly distressed and confused by the whole -atmosphere of Hill’s villa. She walked with lowered -eyes and frightened steps through these rooms in which -the walls were covered with impudently brilliant coloured -pictures. I won’t even mention all the nudes that met her -gaze everywhere without trace of shame, in strange and -challenging forms. To her the nude was now exclusively -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>associated with sickness and death. She could not and -would not think of it except under fever cooling bandages -or under the surgeon’s knife. And here it insolently -glowed with health or made a pretence of harmony and -peace which could be nothing but a delusion and abomination. -It was incredible. But that was not all. Even -from the landscapes it seemed to her that there emanated -something of sin and danger. The mixture of French impressionism -and national lyricism of that time, which nowadays -appears to us so harmless and innocent, still seemed -then alarmingly modern, and Hedvig also found in these -pictures a defiant worldliness quite different from that of -the old brown-gravy landscapes which hung on the walls -at Selambshof. Art with its flavour of sin and damnation -pursued her even into the sickroom. Opposite the bed -there hung a picture of a handsome naked youth who -smiled an ecstatic smile though his breast was pierced -with cruel arrows.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Isn’t he beautiful, Saint Sebastian?” said Percy proudly. -“I discovered him in Naples in an old Jew’s shop. The -painter is unknown, but you can see at once that he must -have been a contemporary of Bernini. The typical mixture -of sensualism and ecstasy of the baroque style cannot -be mistaken. My Sebastian is a male cousin of Saint -Teresa of the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. His -breast is full of the arrows with which the beautiful angel -threatens her. One does not quite know if it is the arrows -of love or of martyrdom.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sister Hedvig looked at the floor and shook her head:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I don’t understand anything of all this. And I don’t -want to understand it either. I am not here to look at pictures.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>In this strange world she had come into, Percy Hill’s -illness was somehow the only thing she had to hold on to -and she felt hurt that he did not take it seriously enough.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy looked quite frightened.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>“Dear, dear, surely I have not hurt you, Sister, in any -way. I didn’t mean to at all.” Then he added with a -pale, little smile: “I must talk about art, you see, otherwise -my temperature will rise....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She did not give an answering smile.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She continued all along to be stiff, silent and suspicious. -In his weakness and helplessness he suffered at first from -this lack of sympathy. If he had been an artist he would -perhaps have felt a genuine hatred for her. But he was -only a dilettante and an amateur, so he not only suffered -it, but even began to be attracted by the gloomy and rigid -creature as he might have been by some old sombre family -treasure which had been hidden from the world in some -dusty and sunless corner. Yes, exactly like some gloomy -treasure which dumbly reminds us of the dreams and -passions of a bygone age. And which is not for sale -amongst the rubbish of today.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus far had Percy come after a week’s dilettante analysis -of Hedvig’s personality. By this time he had entirely -ceased to speak about art. But one evening when -she stood by the window staring out on the hard and wind-swept -autumn sky the expression on her face suddenly -brought an idea into his head:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Sister Hedvig,” he exclaimed, “won’t you read to me a -little out of the Old Testament?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And he rang for a footman and sent him for a new illustrated -edition de luxe bible from the library.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Hedvig refused at first. She was afraid of the -echo from the luxurious rooms with their works of art just -outside. She was afraid of his vain and scoffing secret -thoughts. But Percy was persistent. He told her about -his childhood when his mother would sometimes read aloud -to him out of the school bible in the evenings. It sounded -almost as if in his strange way he took the scriptures -seriously. And at last to her own surprise Hedvig gave -in. His face lit up:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>“Take Deborah’s song,” he begged, as keen as any child -to hear its favourite story.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Hedvig read in a low voice of Deborah who led the -chiefs of Israel, whose soul went forth in strength. But -there was something too mournful and cold in her voice. -Percy’s sensitive ear suspected old Kristin’s influence, the -deep-rooted fatalism of the people. He was however afraid -of hurting her and let her finish the chapter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That is too hard and bright,” he muttered. “There is -too much victory for us two, Sister Hedvig. Take something -more difficult and more gloomy.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Hedvig read on. She did not know why herself. -Perhaps she had a feeling in her inmost heart that he in -some way seemed to understand her. But this no longer -alarmed her shyness. He was so weak and helpless. He -lay there in the shadow of death. He would never rise up -and boldly cast her secrets into her face. So she read on. -She read of how Jehu annihilated the whole house of Ahab -and of how the dogs ate Jezebel on the fields of Jezreel. -And she read in the book of Job how man, born of woman, -lives a short time full of care, how his illness rises up -and bears witness against him and over his eyes rests the -shadow of death. To the grave he must say: “Thou art -my father,” and to the worms of putrefaction: “my mother, -my sister.” And she read in Isaiah about the earth -which was consumed by the curse, how the sap of the vine -sorrowed and the vine languished. Plaintive cries are heard -over the wine and all joy is like a sun that has set—all joy -of the earth has disappeared. Dangers and pitfalls and -snares lie in wait for you, inhabitants of earth! Earth -is utterly broken down, and shall reel like a drunkard, it -shall be clean dissolved.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy lay quite silent and looked at Hedvig. He followed -unconsciously the movements of her lips. This is absolutely -sincere, he thought. She is a being from the past. -She belongs to an age when fear formed a great part of human -<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>life. It is strange to hear the Jewish cast of thought -from her lips, persistent as the groans of a sufferer, bitter as -the knowledge which is hammered into you by blow upon -blow. Only the pressure of the world and sad experience....</p> - -<p class='c009'>And he felt a great joy as if he had succeeded at last in -finding a really precious antique for his collection.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was getting dusk and Hedvig did not see the print any -longer. She put down the heavy book. She had a sudden -feeling of relief as after confession. Though faint and -transient it was nevertheless something unique in her life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But already the next morning Hedvig felt a dull -anxiety at having given herself up. And she was more curt -and silent and reserved than usual.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In November Percy grew somewhat worse. He was often -troubled by coughs and his temperature curve showed a -tendency to rise. The doctor shook his head when his -patient spoke of going to Switzerland.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Not before the spring,” he said. “Now we must be -good and keep quiet and drink milk.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy did not like the doctor very much. He represented -the prose side of his illness. But Hedvig -looked meaningly at her patient when the doctor had gone. -She looked at him as if he had been a child who had wanted -to run away from school but who had been brought to -reason. She had grown with his weakness. She nursed -him diligently and carefully but with an expression of -solemn superiority. “There, you see,” she seemed to say, -“after all, your vanity won’t help you. Of what use now is -your art and your worldly pride?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy noticed it, but he did not grow angry. He was -not of that kind. He also derived a sort of pleasure from -this new development. Hedvig no longer seemed to him a -dark and rare treasure that he had added to his collections. -And he loved to droop away in sight of that sombre and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>stern virgin face. Even pain could give him a secret -pleasure.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This is an auto-da-fé,” he muttered once in delirium. -“I can see the sparks in the pupils of Sister Hedvig’s eyes. -They are roasting me with slow fire because I have doubted -the Virgin Mary’s immaculate conception.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then he smiled his mysterious, derisive, little smile, -which was so full of weakness and courage. But in the -midst of the smile there came a sudden fit of coughing accompanied -by blood and froth between his pale lips, blood -on the lace of sheets and pillows. His wound had broken -out again. He had another attack of hæmorrhage of the -lungs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy’s face grew still paler and thinner. It was as if he -had shrunk before the cold breath of Death’s wings. But -he was never a coward in his suffering. There was never a -trace of panic.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But his weakness was such that Sister Hedvig found no -occasion for any anxious, defensive suspicion. She was -afraid of life, but he no longer belonged to life, she thought. -A dying man she dared to approach. Confronted by death -she dared to be woman. Yes, now the shy, severe Sister -Hedvig could be quite tender and open. Turning away a -little, she could softly stroke his hand as it lay there so -white on the eiderdown. Yes, sometimes she gave him -little stealthy caresses that had no tomorrow. It was her -woman’s soul that lay half suffocated beneath her fear, -which now ventured to make little hesitating excursions in -the twilight of death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus had Sister Hedvig by the force of circumstances -come quite near to one who was the complete opposite to -herself. We witness here the strange meeting of two -persons, one of whom is sterile from fear and the other -from lack of fear. Percy Hill’s life showed a strange -blunting of the faculty of fear. He had always lacked the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>spur to action and to life that fear provides. Hence his -dilettantism. He lived on his money without knowing -anything about the hard struggle which had brought -it together. He loved art without being capable of diving -beneath the work itself to the deep disquietude -which had created it. He never went beyond the enjoyment -of it. His own creative work had only been a form -of enjoyment. That is why he had never created anything -new. He knew it himself, but he had not the strength to -feel any real anguish over it, that anguish which might -perhaps in the end have opened the gates to the mysterious -creative world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But now in the face of death this deficiency seemed like -a splendid liberation. It is a fact that death does not come -to us as a stranger. It grows coarser or more delicate and -refined according to our natures. Percy’s death must of -course be frail and subtle and with an element of incurable -dilettantism.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You must not think, Sister Hedvig,” he whispered with -a little smile of ineradicable irony vanquishing his weakness, -“that this is anything very extraordinary to me. -There is really not very much that will be lost with me. -I have always stood rather well with death. I cannot remember -that I have ever fought against it even in the -thoughts of my boyhood. My mother was so unnaturally -afraid for me that I, by mere reaction, grew more and more -indifferent. At first I hoped perhaps a little to get something -from my illness. I hoped that the fever and the fine -restlessness would yield me something. So much beauty -has been born of consumption. Perhaps I still hope. -But not so feverishly that it consumes me.” In vain Hedvig -told herself that this was false blasphemy. In vain she -entrenched herself behind her religious feelings. She felt -that he did not lie. To her it seemed monstrous that a -person could speak so without lying. An exquisite coolness -descended upon her soul. Her own dark fear of life -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>shrank in this unusual light. There were moments of a -glorious release of the usual tension within her. She felt -something almost resembling gratitude and tenderness. -She need not hide anything, nor pretend, nor creep away. -All this had no tomorrow. He could not betray her, nor -trample upon her. He would soon die.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus Hedvig went about prepared to close his eyes, to -mourn for him and keep him as a beautiful memory which -nobody in the world would know of, or could deprive her -of.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Already she was depositing him, the secret treasure of the -poor, with Death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But now the unexpected happened, Percy Hill did not -die. On the contrary he began to pick up a little in the -spring. In the beginning it almost looked as if he himself -had been a little embarrassed and ashamed at this -turn of events.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have never done what was expected of me,” he said. -“I never finished my pictures. And of course, I did not -see this thing through either....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But there was all the same something new in his tone. -These phrases no longer rang true as formerly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>You may have been nearly run over by a tram and it is -only afterwards when you are safe on the pavement that -you begin to be frightened and feel the threat of death -within you. As his temperature fell there rose a new restlessness -in Percy Hill. He began anxiously to avoid talking -of death. It seemed as if he had been ashamed of his -weakness. He did all he could to appear as well as -possible. It was only with difficulty that he was kept in bed. -He grew impatient at the constant relapses of the early -spring into cold and miserable weather. He insisted on going -somewhere where there was plenty of sunshine. He -had suddenly been seized by a violent zest for life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, and now Percy Hill felt for the first time a certain -fear of death. A mysterious change had taken place in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>him. He had been inoculated with some of Sister -Hedvig’s poisons in the same way as she had been with his.</p> - -<p class='c009'>How did she behave for her part now when he slowly -began to slip out of the shadow of death under which they -had come so near to each other? Did she draw back into -her shell? Did she become the closed garden or the sealed -spring once again? It might seem so. She had an expression -which seemed to command him to forget what had -passed between them. That furtive tenderness, whose -shoots seemed only to thrive in darkness, ceased. But -the seal was all the same broken. Her reserve and shyness -could never be exactly the same again, they had no longer -the true depth. There rather arose moments of a certain -banal and everyday embarrassment between them. Percy -clearly suffered in accepting her assistance. He shaved -himself every day and became particular about his appearance. -Certain situations galled him as being lowering -to his masculine pride. It seemed as if he had to overcome -a certain reluctance each time he had to call her -“Sister Hedvig.” Without saying anything Hedvig acquired -the habit of knocking at his door before she entered -the room. She did this with a strange feeling half of -bitterness and half of satisfaction. Her suspiciousness -found the change in Percy’s manners wounding. But in -her inmost heart she proudly understood what it really -meant. Officially she was as much a stranger in his world -as ever before. But it was a fact that she no longer walked -through the picture galleries with lowered eyes. Though -she did not admit it to herself, certain echoes of what he -had said concerning pleasure and beauty being something -self-evident would crop up in her thoughts. After a -youth which had been haunted by the ghost of poverty, she -sometimes felt a shiver run through her in the presence of -this magnificent house and of all she had heard about his -wealth. It was really something hitherto hidden and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>downtrodden in her Selamb soul that very cautiously -raised its head.</p> - -<p class='c009'>From this moment Sister Hedvig began to develop a -certain coquetry. If she read a silent question in Percy -Hill’s eyes she purposely appeared dull and impenetrable. -Her instinct told her that a man like him was attracted -by the unknown, by what was unlike himself. Consequently -she carefully avoided betraying anything of the change -that had taken place in herself. She well remembered -what he had said about the image of the saint in Toledo -and about the sparks from the stake in her eyes. So she -now appeared really pale and dark and Spanish. And -with secret joy she saw that the Spanish effect did its work. -The cool and mocking light had disappeared from Percy’s -eyes. Instead there sometimes came a shy and nervous -look of supplication. He was clearly in love with her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Stellan called, just at the right moment. He -came from what seemed to have been a family council -of the Selambs. Curiosity had been stimulated enormously -of late. Percy was so rich that you could not help -reflecting. Nothing was impossible. It might mean marriage, -it might mean a bequest in his will. One did not -know if he was going to live or die. Neither Peter nor -Laura knew Percy Hill enough to call on him. Hedvig -herself was impossible to approach. Laura had tried -over the telephone but had, of course, got nothing out -of her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then at last Stellan came home from a command in -Norrland and was sent out to Hill’s villa at once to reconnoitre.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was a clear, warm, sunny day after a long spell of -cruelly disagreeable spring weather. Stellan had a strange -gift of always bringing fine weather. Percy was sitting up -in an easy chair in front of an open window facing south. -Sister Hedvig had slipped away into the darkest corner -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>with some kind of Christian needlework. Such April -sunshine was still too much for her. Stellan had ridden -out. He was walking up and down the room lightly -striking his riding boots with his whip. At first he had -been shocked for a moment by Percy’s wasted look, but now -he was already praising his rapid recovery. He always -talked a lot, Stellan. He had a peculiar tendency to dwell -with a mixture of envy and admiration on Percy’s precious -art treasures, on his admirable patronage of art and his -subtle intelligence. He also returned several times by sly, -roundabout ways to the subject of wealth, and money.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, because Percy is the sort of man who must be -reminded that he can get whatever he wants,” he said. -“He will forget to keep alive if you don’t remind him.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was insistent as if at one and the same time -he had wished to free Percy from his lack of self-confidence -and rouse him from the lassitude of his illness. Percy -listened with his eyes half-closed. Of course he did not -take all this seriously. But in his present frame of mind -he enjoyed Stellan’s talk, all the same. It blended with -the clear strong sunshine and seemed to hold out something -like a promise of life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig in her corner also listened to this glorification of -Percy. She suspected that Stellan was also addressing -himself to her. When he returned to the subject of money -and to the wonderful opportunities of becoming rich she -looked down at her work and continued her sewing with -feverish haste. She detested him and yet she wanted to -hear more. She grew hot and cold by turns. To save her -life she could not have looked up.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stellan walked up and down between the two and -observed them with cool and cheerful curiosity. He felt -strangely elated. And then his black horse neighed outside -by the gate post, and a loud and festive flourish of trumpets -like a call to battle was sounded in the clear, radiant spring -air. Stellan took a hasty farewell. Hedvig accompanied -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>him to the front door. She was astonished at herself for -doing so. But there was a certain pleasure in walking -through these magnificent rooms by the side of Stellan -with his jingling spurs. Out on the stairs she looked -into his eyes for a moment. There was a bitter and savage -triumph in her glance. Stellan pointed to his horse.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Winnings at cards,” he said. “I have christened him -the ‘Ace of Spades.’ Fine, isn’t he?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then he jumped into the saddle and trotted away -down the hill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig slowly returned to Percy, who was still sitting -among his cushions in the sunshine.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan’s visit had, as it were, aired out the place after -the long confined winter. Yes, they had lived as in a -monastery cell. And now the horseman on his black -steed had come like a messenger from the great, cold -exciting world beyond. And there was relief in that.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“As soon as I can I am going away,” said Percy, “first to -Meran and then to Mentone.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He looked at Sister Hedvig, who had resumed her -sewing. She was sewing very fast and did not answer. -Percy spoke again with forced ease:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Are you coming with me, Sister Hedvig?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She shrugged her shoulders without looking up:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There are other sick people who need me....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I mean will Sister ... will Hedvig come with me -as my wife?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig shrank further into her corner. Her wretched -fear once again took possession of her and thrust her into -the deepest shadows.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, ... I can’t, ... I will never be anybody’s -wife....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>For a moment Percy looked at her with anxious amazement. -He had lately done his utmost to appear as well -and as manly as possible, and then the poor fellow all of -a sudden completely changed his pose.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>“But I ... I am not a real man, Hedvig. Not now, -at least. I am only a convalescent. And I don’t know if -I can live without your presence.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She was white and her hands trembled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If we can go on living as we have done before, -then....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, till I am well ... and you yourself want it -otherwise....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>His voice sounded both sad and happy. He beckoned -Hedvig towards him:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“O, we both need a lot of sunshine, you and I, Hedvig,” -he muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And he took her hand in his uplifted hands with an expression -of reverence. It was as if he also wished to touch -her beautiful oval face with his fingers. Then he sank -back against his cushions and breathed heavily, oppressed -by his emotions. Hedvig had to lead him back to bed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Our Eros,” whispered Percy pointing at Saint Sebastian, -“who smiles though his breast is full of arrows.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Such was Hedvig Selamb’s engagement. She would have -shrunk back frightened from complete matrimony. She -dared to go half way. It really was a typical Selamb insurance -against the risks both of loneliness and poverty and -the demands of life. But before the dawn of the next day -she had already convinced herself that she was making a -great sacrifice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The banns had been read for the second time and Percy -was expected on a visit to Selambshof, in which he had not -set his foot since he was a child. Hedvig had gone there -at the last moment. She could of course not stay on alone -in the house of her fiancé.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The Selambs were sitting in front of a fire in the hall. -The main building had stood empty the whole of the winter, -since Peter nowadays lived in the bailiff’s wing. The hall -was like a cave. The winter cold still clung to the walls, -though it was May. But that did not seem to disturb the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>Selambs. They whispered in eager tones and were agreeably -excited as if by an interesting game of cards. Now -and then they threw pitying, envious, and secretly admiring -side-glances at Hedvig, who was standing by one of the -windows. Hedvig was dressed in a plain black frock. She -was standing there alone, silent, cold, with a severe and -haughty expression on her face. She looked down the -avenue by which Percy would arrive. Yes, here her fiancé -was about to drive up in a great fine carriage, round the -very same bend as did Brundin once upon a time in his little -green dog-cart. And during dinner she would sit silent and -erect by his side and scarcely taste her food. The silence -would spread around her so that not even Laura would dare -to begin her empty, worldly chatter. There would be a real -contrast to all the shouts and hurrahs of her own unfortunate -wedding. And it would be the last time Percy would -appear at Selambshof. Yes, Hedvig had decided to have a -quiet wedding ceremony without her relations. That would -be the most dignified way. She had no further use for all -these people out here. She would go abroad and leave -it all behind.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig thought of all this as she stood at the window. -The shadow of a smile passed now and again over her severe -red lips. Wonderfully sweet contentment suffused her -whole being. She trampled on her old fear, loneliness, -and humiliation, and felt as if she had truly her old fear -under her foot. But she could not trample it to death. -One does not trample a shadow to death. It can only be -killed by light....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Percy Hill came driving up to the steps. He remained -for a moment sitting in the open carriage looking -up at the high, gloomy walls of Selambshof. It was impossible -for him to escape a feeling of discomfort in the -presence of this sham feudal architecture, this suburban -gothic which did not even take itself seriously. “Well,” -he thought, “we are going away from all this.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>He entered. He moved slowly and looked very pale and -thin in his black morning coat. Nobody could help seeing -that he had been in the shadow of death. For a moment -he seemed to shrink from the wintry air inside. But his -glance brightened when he caught sight of Hedvig’s frock. -He had been afraid to see her without her nurse’s uniform. -Her simple black frock seemed to him an expression of -tactfulness. He kissed Hedvig’s hand and greeted Laura -and Stellan. Then it was Peter’s turn. Percy had had no -communication with him for many years. Peter’s gross -figure startled him somewhat. He offered his transparent -fingers with half-closed eyes and withdrew them again -quickly with a little embarrassed smile.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Nobody said much. Laura pulled her shawl more closely -over her shoulders and even Stellan seemed somewhat ill -at ease.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Hedvig led Percy with an absent-minded expression -to the wedding presents which were laid out on a table -by the window. There were crystal vases and bowls in the -taste of the day—all eloquent of decent, commonplace -domestic life. Hedvig walked away. Percy looked at the -floor.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“They are all overtaxing my nerves,” he thought. “Such -meaningless ugliness!” He had to make a real effort to -realise that this was not a deliberate mockery of their -marriage, but merely a sacrifice to the conventionalities. -At last he began to thank everybody very eagerly and politely -to right and left on behalf of himself and Hedvig.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was Stellan who saved the situation. He took Percy’s -arm.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now I must show you round a little in this owls’ nest,” -he said, in a tone of command that had something engagingly -impersonal in it. “Selambshof was not conjured up -in a day like your palace. It is as old as sin, though it was -unfortunately rebuilt and spoilt in the process sometime -in the ’fifties.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>Percy stopped in the dining-room in front of old Enoch’s -portrait. Suddenly he looked quite relieved and was delighted:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This is very interesting!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do you think so? It’s our grandfather. An old devil, -between ourselves.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy climbed up and examined the signature in the -corner:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Just fancy, a Tervillius! But yet not quite like him. -He never achieved such rapid execution elsewhere. What -swift, cruel characterisation! And he is otherwise so extremely -conscientious.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, he is said to have had his reasons for not loving -old Enoch. It cannot have been very pleasant to owe him -money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“So it is the inspiration of hatred! Well, there are worse -inspirations.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Our dear grandfather was apparently not at all displeased -with the caricature, though for certain reasons it -cannot have been very agreeable to him. I suppose you -know that Tervillius committed suicide ... just a few days -after he had finished out here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, so this is his last work ... an anathema....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had silently stolen up to them and stood there -staring Old Hök in the eyes whilst she listened greedily -to each word that was uttered. Percy pushed his arm -smilingly under Hedvig’s and eagerly solicited the condescension -of his Spanish saint:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Fancy the last masterpiece of a distinguished artist! -And quite unknown to the critics. That is most remarkable.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had also come up to the picture: “Is the old -fellow really worth something?” he wondered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thirty thousand, at least. It’s a pity it is a family -portrait as one does not dare to make an offer for -it.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>The eyes of the Selambs lit up. They evidently regarded -their grandfather with a new interest.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thirty thousand for the curse,” mumbled Hedvig with -a shrug of her shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The old man gave five hundred,” said Peter. “I have -seen an old receipt. He was always a good business man.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Aren’t you afraid to marry into old Enoch’s family?” -cried Laura with a voice that had suddenly become quite -gay. “Just look how like him I am.” And with comic -eagerness she imitated his hard looks and pulled down the -corners of her mouth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Percy looked searchingly round the circle of faces -and his look rested with an expression of admiration on -Hedvig:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Isn’t the likeness all the same most striking in Hedvig?” -he said lightly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Not for a second did he shrink from the thought that -she was of the same blood as the old usurer against whom -the soul of a hunted and despairing artist had exploded -its hatred before his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was a dilettante, Percy Hill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After the early dinner Percy had to return home at once. -And Hedvig did not want to stay with the others round -the coffee table.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now, I will leave you, so that you can discuss us more -freely,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig was going up to her room. She had not gone -many steps up the creaking stairs before she heard the -dammed-up floods of talk of her sister and brothers released. -Silently as a ghost she crept back to the door and listened. -First she heard Stellan’s voice:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The devil take me if I can understand Hedvig. I really -did not think her capable of this.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Indeed,” interposed Laura, “it was exactly what I expected. -She used to sneak things when she was small.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then it was Stellan again:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>“Poor Percy is a decent fellow anyhow. He only wants -to get away as quickly as possible in secret. I understand -that they don’t want us to be present at the wedding.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well,” said Laura, “we are sure to meet again soon—on -another solemn occasion.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then one heard Peter bang his knees together. “Yes, -yes, the money will last longer than the husband. She -will soon have pots of money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig leaned against the doorpost with closed eyes. She -felt cold and stiff all over. Her disgust at the people in -there who so impudently and blindly defiled her sacrifice -froze her blood. And all the same she could not tear herself -away from her listening post. And all the same she -devoured greedily every word of her sister and brothers. -In her innermost heart there was a wild frightened joy to -hear how rich she was going to be.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span> - <h2 class='c005'>XII<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>PETER CASTS OUT MAJÄNGEN AND BRINGS HOME EKBACKEN</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Peter the Boss had begun to frequent the observatory -again. But it was not in order to watch the workers -at Selambshof as old Enoch had done. No, the observatory -was rather the scene of his economic dreams. -With the help of the old marine glass he now and then -peeped into the future. On the blackened billiard marker -he had a few calculations, for the airiness of which quickly -wiped-off chalk was a better medium than paper and ink. -It was a sort of game. But behind the game lurked a serious -purpose. Peter the Boss longed more and more to rise -above the humble rank of an ordinary farm-bailiff. It is -true that he had been called “Director” ever since the estate -had been transformed into a limited company after the -death of their father, but the change of the title did not alter -the facts. Peter was tired of his elementary tricks in buying -and selling and they had now become a matter of mechanical -routine with him. They were simply a means of -obtaining the commission which his sisters and brothers -were too mean to pay him. Of course he did earn a certain -amount of money. Yes, the amount increased quite nicely, -quite nicely. But all the same he felt the restlessness of -one who is conscientiously capable of greater things. He -had half-frightened, dizzying visions of profits of millions. -The future teemed with possibilities which confused and -distracted him during his day’s work. He had to climb up -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>to a high place in order to survey the situation. And that -place was the observatory.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter used to begin his observations from the west window. -At first he pretended to be there for the sake of the -fine view. He was coquetting, as it were, with his shy -hopes. Contemptuously his look passed over treeless and -insignificant Ryssvik. But further away he beheld Trefvinge -beyond the fine fishing water and densely wooded forests. -Well grown and no mortgages! Fancy what a lot of money -could be got out of that estate. Peter could not help making -calculations. It was, of course, mere fancy, idle -fancies ... though perhaps Stellan might ... he had -flirted rather freely with Elvira Lähnfeldt at Laura’s -wedding ... but probably it meant nothing.</p> - -<p class='c009'>With a little sigh Peter stepped to the south window. -Here he at once approached a little nearer to reality. Here -lay Kolsnäs and it looked quite different, with big bare -patches in the forest, and bushes and felled trees and -melancholy seed-pines on the horizon. Yes, yes, cash would -be wanted there when the old lady died and Lieutenant -Manne von Strelert began to sow his wild oats. Lots of -timber had been cut down and the estate was mortgaged, -but there was still lots more to take. Manne was a deuced -decent fellow, anyhow, and Peter would not have minded -making him a little loan now and then. He had a distinct -sensation of pressing a bundle of notes into the Lieutenant’s -hand and receiving a nice little I.O.U. in return, which -would give him a hold over a corner of Kolsnäs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, those were his dreams. Unfortunately Peter had -nothing to spare for Kolsnäs now. Stellan immediately -consumed the cash Peter could lay hands on. He was awful, -Stellan. Already more than half of his shares lay as security -in Peter’s drawer.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last Peter came to the east window. From here he -had a fine view nowadays since he had felled a couple of -enormous aspens on the slope behind the avenue. He did -<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>that because of Ekbacken. Now he could see both the yard -and the sawmill and a bit of the town behind. Peter could -not help interesting himself in Ekbacken. Herman had -avoided him since the divorce. It was not so easy either -to enter into conversation with old Lundbom now that his -trusteeship had lapsed. So Peter had to be content with -what he could discover with the help of his glasses, though -that was quite a lot. He saw, for instance, that the proud -yacht building Herman had spoken of had completely -ceased. There was never more than one yacht and that -was Herman’s own “Laura.” Well, the name was of course -painted out, which really was not to be wondered at. -That tall figure over there was Herman himself. He would -stroll out onto the pier and sit for hours with a glass and a -bottle beside him on the green seat. Sometimes he went -out sailing for a couple of days and then the boat would -lie rubbing against the pier with sails up whilst half the pier -was littered with empty bottles handed up out of the -boat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter shook his head in joyful concern:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Poor boy,” he muttered, “breakers after a storm. This -will never end well.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Neither did it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter soon saw that activity in the shipyard decreased. -The repairing slips began to be empty for long periods, -the capstan struggled with its long arms as if it were begging -for help from all the four quarters of the compass and the -crane hung helpless over the water as if in expectation of -an inevitable fall. And the few workmen visible were -mostly loitering or sitting smoking on the sly between the -weathering stacks of boards round the sawmill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was quite touched at this decay. He felt an agreeable -compassion for the excellent Herman. It was not his -fault that all this misery might turn out to his advantage and -to that of Selambshof. For if the resistance of Ekbacken -was broken then Herman could no longer foolishly oppose -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>the advance of the town. And in that fact Peter secretly -already saw his great opportunity.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had felt a profound emotion when for the first -time he fully realised that the town over there was smoking -and sweating in order to increase the value of Selambshof. -From that moment he began to think that the smell from -the glue works on the other side of the lake was rather -pleasant. The glue works was the first outpost of the town -and with one blow it had broken the spell of the silent little -Mälare bay. What would it not bring in its train? -Damage to property, stolen boats, poaching, brawls, servants -in trouble. And worst of all the horrid smell. A southerly -wind was a real trial to Selambshof nowadays. Stellan -called it the sirocco. But Peter thought in his heart that -the smell was rather pleasant. It smelt of money, money. -But as he walked and sniffed it, he grew impatient with the -sirocco all the same, but not in the same way as ordinary -people did. On the other shore, things moved along deuced -quickly he thought. But on this side Ekbacken can’t resist -for many years. And the town may expand in other -directions.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was a close day in July. There had been a bad -drought this summer and the fields at Selambshof were -half scorched, and promised a failure of the crops. Between -the drooping and dusty elms of the avenue there -was a smell of carrion and old cheese. The whole estate -was enveloped in a vapour of putrefaction. The glue -works over on the other side of the lake vibrated in the -heat haze and seemed to dissolve in mere smells.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter suffered from the economic sirocco worse than -ever. He could not even remain in the observatory, but -had to go out for a walk in spite of the heat. How were -things going at Ekbacken? Eagerly but carefully he -spied round the corner, afraid of being seen, and cursing -beneath his breath the high wooden fence that Herman -had built towards the road. Then he moved on further -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>in order to see how the town was behaving. Well, at -last the new quay was ready. But how was building progressing -on this side? Peter ferretted amongst the dumps -of macadam and the blast holes. He searched for newly -staked-out building sites and for new foundations. No, -there was not enough progress to record. Why did they not -hurry on the work more? It irritated him to see the -workmen lying with their coats under their heads sleeping -amongst the stones after their lunch.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter returned home by another way. He took a dull, -ill-kept road, far back from the lake, which led on past -the old quarry between the bare hills. Unsightly, ragged, -untidy, the hill rose up, useless for all but the crows. -The black smoke from a goods train puffing up the incline -on the other side drifted slowly in between the dwarfed -and miserable pines. Peter stopped a moment in the -damp cold that rose even in the hot sun out of the fens -of Träskängen. He struck his stick on the dried-up lumps -of clay on the road and stared in front of him. He had -suddenly got an idea. The railway! he thought. The -railway! This corner is furthest from town, but I have -got the railway. I attack Ekbacken from behind. I am -finding gold on the rubbish heap!</p> - -<p class='c009'>He staggered home as in a delirium.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A few days later the shareholders of Selambshof were -summoned to a meeting. Peter told them in a few words -that he had found a buyer for the quarry and Träskängen. -“That rubbish is not worth keeping and we need money -to cover the bad season,” he said. Nobody had any -serious objection and the sale was made. The buyer was -Peter Selamb, through an agent of the name of Thomson. -Mr. Thomson got very favourable terms of payment. -Then there appeared an immense white board up in -the Quarry overlooking the railway and bearing the -words:</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span><span class='large'>“SOLBERGET and MAJÄNGEN</span></div> - <div class='c000'>Building Sites for Sale!</div> - <div class='c000'>Majängen Building Co., 3, Nygatan, Stockholm.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c003'>Peter the Boss had thought it suitable to make this little -change in the old place-names.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At the same time a magnificent system of wide intersecting -streets was marked out with neat white painted posts -and iron stakes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Strange to say the sites found a ready sale, for it was -during the golden time of uncritical speculation in suburban -land. And evidently there were some poor overcrowded, -shut up souls for whom even the Quarry and -Träskängen was a taste of liberty and of nature.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The whole autumn, winter and spring, the money dribbled -in regularly. “Majängen” was a splendid coup. But -Peter did not sit down on his gold hoard and purr. On -the contrary he grew more and more restless as his banking -account grew. He kept all his money in ready cash. -With this ace of trumps in his hands he watched eagerly -for the best moment to play it and gather in a fat trick. -His glass almost burnt in his hand when he directed it -towards Ekbacken. During many soliloquies he roamed -restlessly about outside the cursed high wooden fence. -Yes, yes, it reeked of an exquisite decay from afar. But -why did not that stupid Herman come to Peter the Boss? -If he had only known how willingly Peter would have -helped him! It was not right of him to forget an old -friend. Just fancy if Herman had been foolish enough -to throw himself into the arms of one of the banks in the -town, which would just hold his head above water for a -time in order to let him sink afterwards and then march -off with everything!</p> - -<p class='c009'>This thought worried Peter the Boss cruelly. One day -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>when he had seen Herman sail out with the usual case -of bottles he went straight through the high wooden gate -and in to old Lundbom in the office.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Lundbom sat there aged and grey-haired, with a worried -expression.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stretched out a big and honest hand:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Tell me all,” he said. “You can rely upon an old -country neighbour. I am Herman’s friend, though he does -not care about me. I want to help as much as I can.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Lundbom had always had a sort of tender regard for -Peter. He had taught him to play “vira.” He had been -his legal adviser. With a sort of impartial pleasure he -had seen his knowledge boldly applied by his clever pupil. -In his theoretical eagerness he had been rather proud, -though he was himself the soul of honour, of his being -able to show Peter certain loopholes and snags. Old -Lundbom symbolised, as it were, the fate of the law in -this world: to be made use of by rogues.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stood there with outstretched hand, and Lundbom -really could not help seizing it, though Herman had forbidden -all communication with Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What’s the position?” grunted Peter. “If I can do anything -I must know the position.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Lundbom shook the ledger:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There were losses last year already. This year will be -still worse.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The figures?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thirty thousand last year. At least fifty thousand this -year, if things go on like this. Now we are selling out our -timber below cost. We are hard up for ready money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Have you any specially difficult payment to make?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, on Saturday week, a bill for twenty thousand. -Fancy, we who never used to touch bills before.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Who has got your bill?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Lundbom mentioned a small notorious usurious banker. -Peter whistled. That bank proved that Herman had not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>known how to look after his business in town properly. -He rose and pressed Lundbom’s hand:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-bye! Not a word to Herman about this. He -must be managed carefully, poor boy, Good-bye!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>A week later Herman came back from his sailing trip. -He was once more sitting on the pier. The twilight was -strangely yellow. In the south a big grey-black cloud -floated, so heavy and solid-looking that it seemed a miracle -that it did not fall. A warm but strong south-easterly -wind had sprung up after the day’s calm. The leafy -mosses of the willows on the shore turned in the wind and -yellow crested waves beat with foreboding insistence -against the slimy green piles on their sloping stone ballast. -Then the foresail halyard of the cutter began to flap -persistently against the mast, a sound which in a badly -chosen harbour at night threatens to cast you adrift and -to shift your anchor in the dark.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman was sitting with outstretched legs. His chin -had sunk into the sweater and he stared motionless out -over the water. Over his whole being there descended -a chill shadow of loneliness which gave a touch of melancholy -and appeal even to his warm yachting shoes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He stretched out for his whiskey glass but checked -his groping hand and muttered something to himself about -a renewal, a commission, and nine per cent. He came no -further. There he stopped. He refused, from a kind of -spite, to think any more than was necessary to keep things -just afloat for the moment. It was also from some foolish -spite that he had sought the assistance of an ill-famed -bank. “That fits in with me best,” he thought, “for -everybody thinks I am an impossible person.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Ugh! business ... banks ... the whole town!</p> - -<p class='c009'>He felt such a strong desire to take flight in his boat -again that it hurt him. Alone! out into the storm and -darkness!</p> - -<p class='c009'>At this moment a massive figure came walking out -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>along the pier. There was something disarming even in -his way of dodging between the holes in the rotten floor-boards -of the pier. His little, round, wrinkled head -hung on one side between his enormous shoulders—as -if it were drooping from sheer compassion. He somehow -looked like an enormous child. He stopped and -looked at Herman, with two small watery eyes that threatened -to overflow.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman jumped up when he caught sight of the newcomer, -he drew himself to his full height, erect and rigid -as a post:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What do you want here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stretched out his arms, which resembled thighs -on which hands had happened to grow.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Look here, old boy ... why should we go on like -this, ... two old friends like ourselves.... You know -I couldn’t help things....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman suppressed his angry impulse and with a shrug -of his shoulders sank back on the seat, staring once again -out over the water where an old black-tarred fire-wood -smack was just taking in her topsail and slowly turning into -the wind with dark sails booming.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter seized the opportunity of sitting down on the seat -without further ceremony:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You mustn’t think I am on Laura’s side,” he assured -Herman. “She is a handful, she is, without a heart in -her breast!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have never asked to hear your opinion about my -divorced wife,” said Herman in a voice that was meant -to be frigid.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But all the same there was a corner in his soul where -Peter’s words did good. He could not hide his wound. -Peter noticed it at once. So much sensitiveness he had -left from the time of the Great Fear. Yes, yes, that is -the after-swell, he thought, and moved closer up to Herman, -ready to give him another dose. Then it suddenly started -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>to rain. Big, whipping drops. Herman rose silently, -taking his glass and bottle with him. Without looking -at Peter he walked quickly up to the house. “I don’t -mind your being short with me if it soothes you,” thought -Peter, and followed him faithfully up the steps and into the -smoking room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman put the bottle on the table, threw himself on -the sofa and stared at his toes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter took the matches and lit the lamp. Then he -went into the kitchen and returned with a couple of -bottles of soda water and a clean glass. After that he -filled Herman’s glass and prepared one for himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Your health,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman drank deeply without replying. Then followed -a moment’s silence. The rain drummed against the -upper windows, and rushed down the rainpipes. A cool -damp penetrated into the close room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter took a cigar out of a box and lit it:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’ll be damned if I don’t stay the night, old boy! -It feels jolly to be back at old Ekbacken again!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman was still mute and seemed absorbed in the -opposite wall. But when Peter drank he drank also. -And that happened often. Peter thought the whiskey -tasted good. Yes it really was very jolly to be sitting -here at Ekbacken and see old father Hermansson’s -treasures gleam behind the glass of the cupboard in -the corner. He was already drinking Herman’s health, -the delightful sensation of being host himself and of -Herman being less secure in the place than himself. Not -that he was thinking of business tonight. He could save -that up for tomorrow. No, now he gave himself up -to his feelings and the whiskey. And it was no small -amount of feeling that he showed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the intervals between draining their glasses, Peter -suddenly began to abuse Laura again. Was this mere -calculation on his part? Did he sit there in cold blood -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>and sacrifice the sister for his own profit? Was he, -with his diabolical cunning, playing upon poor Herman’s -love and hate? No, Peter really began to realise Herman’s -loneliness. Was he not himself a poor bachelor too? -He felt real pity for Herman. Why shouldn’t he curse -Laura if it did any good to this poor devil—and to -himself, also, by the way? He sat there working up -his fury at the recollection of his sister’s old sarcasms. -Like a mad bull he tore fiercely and passionately at the -red tissue of lies, caprice, ingratitude, and cursed coquetry -called woman. Yes it was a relief to him to take his revenge -on the whole of the abominable sex that turned -up its nose at Peter the Boss, but ran after such scamps -as Brundin.</p> - -<p class='c009'>With a stiff expression of disapproval, Herman sat and -listened to Peter’s disclosures concerning Laura. But -he listened all the same—he couldn’t help it—till at last -he banged his fist on the table so that the glasses jumped:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Be quiet,” he shrieked, “she is the mother of my child!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sat for a moment puzzled, he gasped and blinked -his eyes. Laura was evidently played out. He must -change his front:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Herman, you are a gentleman,” he muttered at last, -admiringly, “I’ll be damned if you are not a gentleman.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>What was Peter the Boss to do now with all the vague -emotions that rose in his massive body? Some use must -be made of this beautiful intoxication. Yes, move at -once to the other extreme. He overflowed with sympathy -and brotherhood and memories from boyhood. “Do -you remember when it rained and we were playing in the -loft at home?” “Do you remember when we climbed -into the rigging down in the shipyard?” “Yes, that was -in the good old days, old boy!” “We have had a damned -fine time together all the same!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here Peter’s eyes filled with tears and he slapped -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>the old fellow on the back and swore that a helping hand -from Peter the Boss would not be lacking. Herman -made no opposition. He suddenly looked terribly tired. -He had been so utterly, miserably lonely. Though he -still felt suspicious he had no longer strength to resist. -Peter overpowered him by his sheer weight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter forgot to remove his hand from Herman’s shoulder. -He felt a great, vague exaltation. At that moment he -really loved his dear old Herman. He felt an irresistible -desire to do something for him. The observatory, Majängen -and his errand to Ekbacken: all were forgotten in -this moment:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Look here, Herman,” he muttered in a thick voice, “I -saw little Georg the other day. In his fourth year. -Sailor blouse and a whistle on a white cord. Your image. -Wouldn’t you like to have a look at him? Laura is going -away, so it is easy to arrange. He can stay for a few -days with the nurse at Selambshof. That’s not a bad -idea, eh? Now do say yes!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman had not wanted to see his child. In his injured -pride he had refused for three years to allow himself -that crumb of comfort. Yes, he had almost imagined -that he hated the baby. Now he sank down with his hands -in front of his face:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Tomorrow,” he muttered. “Tomorrow, before I change -my mind.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, tomorrow, old boy. With milk teeth and -whistle and spade and pail and all the rest of it. Come -up to Selambshof and have an afternoon whiskey and -soda and then you’ll see him.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter rose. He stood there like a lump of dough, massive -and swaying to and fro, and would not let Herman’s -hand go:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Tomorrow, old boy, tomorrow. Welcome!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter the Boss walked home to Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman swept bottle and glass on to the floor and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>then sat motionless as a statue and stared into the night -and thought of his son.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>There are men who are fat for slaughter and there -are those who are fattened by the slaughter of others. -Peter the Boss certainly belonged to the latter category. -But heavy and sluggish blood may still leave you a victim -of softer feelings. And Peter had, as we have seen, his -weaknesses. But the strange thing is that somehow when -it came to the point they always served his purpose. He -could yield to any excess of feelings because the real -Peter the Boss remained safely behind on guard. Whilst -others awoke with remorse and a splitting head, he realised -through the lifting mists that he was on the point of doing -a fine stroke of business.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Big and good-tempered, he now stood in his soiled -flannels and wide-brimmed sombrero by the corner of his -house and looked at the touching group on the terrace. -He was confoundedly fond both of the fair little thing between -the sand moulds and of that tall unhappy Herman -who had—God help him—dressed up in morning coat to -meet his son. Perhaps it was because they were both -equally helpless.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman sat there rigid and pale, torn by conflicting -emotions. He did not try to explain who he was. He did -not even dare to take the boy on his lap, he only looked -silently at the vivacious open face and the chubby little -eager hands. A living memory of the past! There they -had mixed their blood, he and the woman from whom -he would never escape as long as he lived.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a sighing of the wind in the old maple above -the rusty signalling guns. Here Laura had sat, and there -up the avenue he had come—always with that strange anxiety -in his inmost heart, Herman leant back on the -bench. A feeling of resignation stole over him. Here at -Selambshof he had met his fate—and here he would still -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>find it. Here were beings against whom it was no use -fighting.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter coughed before he came up to them, a wonderful -act of delicacy on his part.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the nurse came to put little Georg to bed. Herman -started up as if in alarm. He lifted the boy up in his -arms as if to kiss him, but put him down again and sank -back on the seat beside Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I hope you have not talked about me—you have not -told the nurse who I am,” he muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Not a word,” Peter assured him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Herman felt all the same a pang in his heart. -“Then Laura won’t hear of it,” he thought. “And she -won’t be forced to give me a thought.” And he hated -himself because he could not help feeling a cold emptiness. -In one draught he emptied the glass before him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter carefully slipped into business. He did not -of course speak of Herman’s bill that was due or of the -affairs of Ekbacken at all. He only said that he had -met somebody who wanted to invest about fifty thousand -crowns on good security. And then he had thought of -Herman at once. Times were difficult and working capital -always useful.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman did not seem to hear at first. Then his face -contracted at the thought of this wretched business. And -then he suddenly assumed the cold, severe, businesslike -tone which is so often found in very impatient people:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Terms? Interest?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Not bad—six per cent—”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If I am to consider the proposition I must have half -tomorrow against my promissory note until the bills of -sale are redeemed.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Aha!” thought Peter the Boss, “there you gave yourself -away. I should never have said that.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well,” he muttered, “you might get about twenty thousand -at once.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>Herman felt that this was easy. He glanced suspiciously -at Peter:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Who is this benefactor? Does he prefer to remain -unknown?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter smiled and looked transparently honest:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Not at all, he is O. W. Thomson, director of Majängen. -I can vouch for him. Decent fellow. I shall be pleased -to arrange the business for you out of gratitude for all -you have done for us at Ekbacken.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman suspected that Thomson was Peter’s dummy. -A few days ago when old Lundbom, encouraged by a certain -visit he had received, had hinted vaguely at Peter, -Herman had sworn that he would never have anything to -do with Selambshof. But before he walked home that -evening he had all the same arranged for a meeting. He -was not strong enough to resist.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The following day it appeared that O. W. Thomson had -gone away. The matter could not be arranged until two -days later, that is to say, the day before the due date -of Herman’s bill. And then Thomson was in a bad temper. -He demanded eight per cent and only a month’s notice. -It was risky. Peter had done what he could but that -confounded Thomson was quite impossible. There was -nothing left for Herman to do but sign and rush off to -the bank.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Peter continued these friendly potations with Herman. -He enjoyed his company very much, and showed a touching -interest for his welfare, yes, he really ministered to his -weaknesses:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You have been living in hell, Herman,” he said. -“It has got on your nerves.” (Yes, Peter had actually -found out that there were such things as nerves.) “You -must take care of yourself, sleep, amuse yourself, go sailing. -Lundbom looks after the business. He is a magician, -old Lundbom.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>“As if it helped to sail,” muttered Herman, as gloomy -as the Flying Dutchman.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But he did go sailing, anyhow, and Peter went too, -and did not let go of his dear Herman. And when now -after long stormy cruises out to sea, they had dropped -their hook far out in a fine night harbour under some -rugged cliff and the waves roared on the pebbles on the -shore and the crescent moon shone over the sea, whilst -the evening sky hung green and cold over the long ragged -forest edges in the west, then they both revelled in a -beautiful and romantic hatred of the town, its dirt and -stuffiness and humbug and misery. It was a most beautiful -accord between shyness, laziness and weakness on the one -hand and instinctive, furtive, self-interest on the other. -To Herman the town meant rubbish, masons, walls -scrawled all over, insidious threats against the idyls of his -childhood. But it also meant his great smouldering trouble, -neglected duties and a bad conscience. For Peter on -the other hand the town meant ten thousand possibilities -and the fine opportunities which Herman must not suspect. -He liked to finish off his exhortation with little edifying -stories, terrifying little accounts of the cursed -banks.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, beware of the banks, Herman,” he exclaimed. -“Bills here and bills there and not a moment’s peace. One -fine day they get you into their clutches and then you -have to say good-bye to everything. But we will defend -ourselves, old boy. We know a few little tricks, we -rustics too, now don’t we? If you get into difficulties -don’t make them offers. There is nothing so dangerous -as to make them offers. No, you come to Peter the Boss -and he will stand by you. Not an inch shall they have -of Ekbacken and Selambshof.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman sat there eating his tinned food, half touched, -half suspicious.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, but you have already sold some of it.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>Peter smiled a superior smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t you understand. I tricked them, tricked those -town scoundrels splendidly. Sold away the rubbish heap -in order to sit more securely in the Castle.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There Herman had got something to sleep on. And -in fact he did sleep better than usual. It was as if Peter -had lifted the worries from off his back and taken them -on his own broad shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter also snored soundly. He had not by any means -done everything he might have done to ensure and isolate -his victim. Never! he who liked Herman so much! No, -he had only been jolly decent and said what he knew -Herman liked to hear.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And when Peter afterwards came into town and told -everybody he met that that fellow at Ekbacken was far -too fine for business, and that he had such damned bad -luck in all he did, it was not done at all in order to -destroy the last remnants of Herman’s credit and make -him even more impossible than before. He merely felt -so frightfully sorry for Herman that it was impossible -for him to keep quiet about it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But the whole manœuvre was as a matter of fact quite -unnecessary. When, towards the autumn, cash again began -to run short, Herman simply had not the energy to go to -anybody else but Peter. The mere thought of going to -cold strangers made him shiver. And Peter did not say -“no.” He really surpassed himself. Herman got all -he wanted at once on the security of a new mortgage -on Ekbacken, though this time with lower interest and a -more reasonable notice of calling in.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman was really moved when he went home. Fancy -if it had been Laura who had repented and forced Peter -to this. Yes he really lived on this fantastic dream -through the whole of the autumn. Poor Herman, his -pride had been dealt a severe blow.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But a great calm had descended on Peter after his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>former restlessness. The sirocco no longer irritated him. -He had only to wait for the ripening of the fruit now. -Soon he would be able to free Herman from all his worries -about Ekbacken, which only made him unhappy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Whilst waiting, Peter made little dreary excursions to -his little gold mine “Majängen” and “Solberget.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was mostly poorer people who had ventured out to -the new suburb. They blasted, and dug, and sawed and -hammered in nails. Quite a lot of queer looking cottages -had already been hammered together down in the marsh -and up in the quarry. And there were already geraniums -in the windows and children on the doorsteps. Peter -shook his head, smiled and pondered. “They build,” -he thought. “That’s a mistake. They ought to buy from -those who overbuild themselves. But they are decent people -all the same, quite decent people.” He moved on carefully -among the blocks of stone and the clay holes in the -staked-out streets. He stopped before an arbour consisting -of a few recently planted lilac bushes of the size of broom, -in front of a patch of golden nasturtiums in a cleft in -the granite filled with soil.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter the Boss really felt quite touched. It is strange -how poetic poverty can be—in others. Fancy how simply -one can live. Yes, they were really quite comfortable -here in Majängen and Solberget. Peter actually began -to feel a benefactor of all these people. “Goodness! -I wonder if I did not let those sites go too cheaply,” he -thought.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Meanwhile Ekbacken was ripening, as I have said before.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One day towards winter Herman came up to Selambshof -and wanted more money. But the end had come, Peter had -not a penny free. To crown it all that fellow Thomson -came to Ekbacken a few days later and called in his -fifty thousand. Herman ran over to Peter again. He -had no hope. No, in his heart he knew that Peter and -Thomson were one and the same. But he went all the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>same, he had nobody else to turn to after the way he -had managed his business in town.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter grew furious with Thomson:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I shall go in to town and lay down the law to that -scoundrel,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As might have been expected, Thomson would not move. -But Peter returned with a new proposal:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have managed to interest a few old boys in Ekbacken,” -he said. “They are prepared to take over the whole thing -and there will still be a nice little sum left over for you. -You will escape all trouble and worry and get a little pile -of thousand-crown notes that you can do what you deuced -well like with!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman sat there pale and with trembling hands:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, but the house ... the boat....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well ... the old boys want the lot, of course....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman started in alarm, like a child that has been -left alone out in the forest. His home...! His memories -from childhood ... the memory of Laura ... the -boat ... his retreat, his consolation!</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I will never agree to that! It is too damnable!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He rushed out of Selambshof. He roamed about the -roads. It was a snowless winter day, raw and windy, -when everything wears a frozen, worn face without the -peace of age. He stopped and beat the dry thistles on -the roadside with his stick. “I have been a child,” he -thought. “A weak, obstinate, helpless wretch. But now -I must become a man. Now I must go into town and -fight for Ekbacken, tooth and nail.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He hastened towards the town, walking and running, -but as he approached the toll bar, his steps became -slower. The old hopelessness, laziness, and cowardice -crept over him again. “What’s the use?” he muttered. -“Everybody is expecting my ruin, the workmen, the foreman, -Lundbom, Peter ... everybody.... What’s the -use?”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>Huddled up, shivering, crushed with shame, he slunk -into Ekbacken by a side path. He sank groaning into -a settee and swallowed a glass of undiluted whiskey. -And out of the whiskey came a thought, the thought -of flight and failure, but also the thought of a thousand -possibilities:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“America!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter the Boss had been right in his calculation. Three -days later the business was settled and Herman received -twenty thousand crowns.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You saved the slam anyhow, old boy,” said Peter, -“You saved the slam anyhow.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was pleased with himself for having helped a friend -in difficulties. It hurt him that Herman went about looking -drained dry. And then those stupid America plans. Why -the devil should Herman want to go away? With whom -was Peter now to drink his whiskey during the long winter -evenings? Who would be with him when he was out -sailing in his new yacht? Herman, who knew the boat so -well.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It will be empty after you, Herman,” complained Peter, -“damned empty.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But for once Herman stuck to his decision and so the -moment of farewell arrived. Peter was down at the station. -Herman was already at the carriage window, filled -with an impotent bitterness both sharp and dull. He -had been a hopeless failure, fit to be plucked and cast -aside. Laura and Peter had taken everything away from -him. And in spite of it all he had not got the strength -of mind to hate them. Yes, when he saw Peter’s coarse -face, swollen with emotion, he positively did not know -what to believe. “Perhaps he has really done what he -could for me,” he thought. “And it was rather decent of -him to come down here so that I need not be quite alone.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the engine took its first deep breath as if it were -challenging the distance it was about to cover.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>Peter wept. He could not let go Herman’s hand:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-bye, old boy! Take care of yourself now. -Good-bye, Herman!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then old Hermansson’s tall Herman was swept off -the stage.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter the Boss drove slowly home in Brundin’s -old dog-cart. He was both sad and glad. When he had -passed the toll bar he fell into a solemn mood. The short -cut across Ekbacken was open to him now. Somebody -ran to the gate to open it for him. He drove past the house -on the lake side and past the landing stage and the old -office. Dusk began to fall and Peter felt suddenly very -sorry for himself. What had he not undertaken! Fancy -looking after all this. The road now ran along the lake. -Peter held the reins very loosely and by and by the horse -stopped. It was perfectly still and the lake was on the -point of freezing over. A big, cold, glowing cloud hung -over Kolsnäs and was reflected in the glassy surface of -the water. The heavy clatter of a horse’s hoofs on the floating -bridge floated out into the quiet of the evening. Peter -sighed deeply. He envied Herman. Fancy travelling -about with twenty thousand in your pocket. He will see -something of the world. But I, old peasant, will never get -abroad anywhere. I sit here in old Selambshof ... and -old Ekbacken....</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span> - <h2 class='c005'>XIII<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>TORD’S EXILE</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Lately Selambshof had not been as quiet as usual. -The scattered brothers and sisters began once more -to find the way back to the ancestral home.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The fact of the matter was that the estate was growing -more and more valuable every day. The town had already -begun—to Peter’s great joy—to encroach upon a -part of Ekbacken. Now it began to stretch its arms -around Selambshof. And like old King Midas it changed -all it touched into gold.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, it was extraordinarily pleasant to sit there and feel -how you were growing richer and richer every moment. -And then they had to look after their interests, keep an -eye on each other, and especially on the honourable director -of Selambshof Limited.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was curious to watch the Selambs when they were together. -They quarrelled terribly, but stuck together all -the same—just like the Bonaparte family. None believed -another. They laid mines and countermines. They tricked -one another until they got even, so that in the end a -sort of rough natural justice prevailed. Peter the Boss -now sat in the prisoner’s dock as a result of a too bare-faced -falsification of the accounts of Majängen and Solberget -Ltd. Laura unhesitatingly accused him, in the clearest -and most spirited terms of being a false old thief. -Stellan’s sword play was more skilful and he got in a -whole series of neat little thrusts, each one of which would -have been a sufficient indictment in a prosecution for misrepresentation -and misappropriation. Peter smiled complacently -<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>at these accusations, which he regarded as so -many pleasant expressions of recognition of his merit. He -lied with a certain heavy grace to this assembly of expert -connoisseurs. Behind all his lies lay all the same the truth -that he had really done great things for Selambshof. And -he realised that in their inmost hearts his sisters and -brothers knew they must look up to him, Peter the Boss, as -the eldest and the head of the family. And after all the -whole quarrel was sunk in the great and glorious consciousness -of the daily increasing value of Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But towards the spring these meetings were not quite -as agreeable as usual. That was the fault of Tord. Yes, -the despised, neglected, almost forgotten Tord down there -in The Rookery began to cause the high family council -very serious anxiety. He had dismissed the bohemian -painter who had been a parasite on him for several years -and instead he had returned with a woman, a slovenly -person who spoke a sort of Norwegian and who was a very -dubious person. Well, that might have passed if Tord had -not got the mad idea of marrying her. The Selambs had -had a terrible shock when they saw in the paper the reading -of the banns. And now a fortnight later they were -sitting by a big wood fire in the icy hall of Selambshof -and knew no more than that Tord had driven to town with -the woman that morning. They might already be married -by now, though the sisters and brothers had been told nothing. -Really it was extraordinary behaviour....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Let us now see how Tord Selamb had come to do this -most unexpected thing: arranging for the banns to be read -and going to church to be married.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The story really begins with the severing of Träskängen -and the Quarry. Peter had in some way tricked Tord into -being absent at the meeting when the sale was decided on. -This put him into a fury which increased in violence when -Tord saw the secret retreat of his youth defiled by boundary -posts, trenches, blasting and disgusting hordes of insolent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>intruders. His protracted fury finally resulted in -some immoderate and indignant articles in the yellow press. -Tord was not, of course, indignant that people should be -tricked into living on a marsh and on a refuse dump. -No, he was furious because of this encroachment upon his -dominion of boxes of lizards and frogs. He tried to enlist -science in his cause by clamouring about some rare -marsh flowers and an unique diving bug. It was a vehement -defence of the wilderness and an infuriated battle -cry against the town. And the whole concluded with some -mixed reflections of a hermit’s spleen, pseudo-science, artist’s -slang and bad nature-lyrics.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The articles were of course anonymous. But Peter recognised -the author from certain attacks and exposures. He -was not ungrateful for this valuable free advertisement of -Majängen and Solberget, which must now appear to the -uninitiated as a glorious paradise in the wilderness. But -for the sake of order he made certain representations to -his youngest brother, which resulted in a quarrel, during -which Tord gave vent to his excitement by letting off his -gun, into the air it is true, but still a gunshot.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Filled with a new indignation, Tord continued his articles -and painted on the wall the devil of capitalistic greed -despoiling nature, with features which resembled those of -Peter the Boss to a nicety. He began to develop a taste -for writing. He suddenly felt that he was meant to be a -writer, and was at once seized with a violent contempt for -the art of painting. It is true that all he wrote, except -those violent articles of propaganda, was cast into the -editor’s waste paper basket, but that only increased his -irritation without in any way convincing him of his incapacity. -After a quarrel with his old painter-friend over -the relative values of the two arts he without further ado -kicked out the disgusting parasite who had tricked him -into wasting the most beautiful years of his youth with -such rubbish as the crayon and the paint brush.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>The painter was gone. Libations with Peter were over. -Tord was alone, quite alone with his foxes and crows and -mice in the gruesome Rookery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He got into the habit of making long excursions into -the town—the detestable town. Nothing like it had happened -to him since he had slipped out there as a boy in -profound secrecy for some devilment. At that time he -had had a strange, secret partnership with some unknown -vagabond in whose company he had pilfered in the market -place and cut holes in sacks of flour down by Skeppsbron. -He remembered the latter especially because of the strange, -soothing satisfaction it afforded him to stand there in the -twilight and feel the cool, velvety flour running through -his fingers into the mud. He had already begun to revel -in destruction, perhaps from a precocious, instinctive -hatred of all the culture on which society is based.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord hated the town, but not in the same way as Herman, -to whom it meant lawsuits and a bad conscience. Tord -did not suffer from his conscience. No, he had an instinctive -hatred of all the adaptability, refinement, co-operation -and methodical work for which it stood. He detested the -great complex machine in which men are only cogs. It -was the complex purposefulness and relative common sense -of teeming civic life which tormented him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stockholm was becoming a great city and as such -it had another side. It was a jungle, a wilderness of stone, -the home of the thronging masses and of cold emptiness -by night. But the town began to exert a certain fascination -over Tord. He was going to be a writer, as we know, -and those who can do nothing else can always explore the -special vices of the imagination. He discovered that loneliness -in a crowd has many joys for a fastidious individualist. -The masses are necessary, so that we may look -down on them. In the crush of humanity we dream so -easily of the lofty heights from which all below look like -creeping things. It is always so with the dreams of sterile -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>genius. It would begin at the top, forgetful of all that -lies below.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So much for Tord and the throng. But he did not hold -out long. He soon relapsed into restless despair. He was -frightened by the very masses over which he had just -triumphed, and fled, full of loathing, home to The -Rookery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>No, it was better in the emptiness and the cold stony -landscape. To stroll about in the deserted outskirts of -the town in the uncertain spring twilight when the masses -of houses rise up like huge banks of darkness in the waning -light and the street lamps look like giant submarine lilies -which have collected all the cold phosphorescent light. -To drift about on still summer’s nights when the lamps -are out and everything sleeps at the bottom of a green sea, -where the desires of our dreams move silently like great -fishes. The town in storm and darkness when the lonely -wanderer, stimulated by drink, imagines himself lord of -this brooding deserted world of stone! The town as landscape, -as nature, as the hunting ground of all the wild -instincts. The narrow back street defiles, the dark ambushes -of the doorways, the snares of the public house and -the bordel. Hazard, adventure, vice, women! Yes, every -evening the town was a great wild jungle where the chase -of women was permitted. Tord pursued this chase with -a restless and obstinate interest. He had the lonely man’s -long vision for a woman’s shadow. He could follow one -after the other for hours but without being able to approach -one. He was consumed by an envious hatred of the enterprise -of others more bold. He returned home dead tired, -embittered and lonely, lonely....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Nevertheless it was in this hunting ground that Tord -Selamb at last met his fate. It was one dark, rainy, icy cold -evening in March. Hot and cold, heedless and obstinate -he followed a woman. But it did not end as usual. -The dark shadow would not allow itself to be caught; it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>did not suddenly vanish in a doorway. The figure in -front of him only walked on and on, against the wind, -restlessly, without goal or purpose, it seemed, but sharply -dismissing all who accosted it. Now and then it dived -into a dark back street or crept into a gateway, but more -from caprice than to escape its pursuers. The purposelessness -of its roving movements fascinated Tord in quite a -peculiar way. It was like a beast of the forest, he thought. -He had not yet seen its face but its step was young and -springy. This was really no idle loitering. It walked -with the conscious energy of one who is angry and mumbles -disjointed phrases to himself. Then it walked towards the -southern heights of the town. Then steps and a square -with melancholy sighing trees, and then a cobbled back -street with a few yellow flickering lamps on posts at the -corners of the ramshackle old houses. It was a cul-de-sac, -terminating in a big wooden barrier. Below glimmered -the rough wet sides of the hill, lit up by the lights along -a flight of steps on the other side of a deep, dark, shaft-like -yard. The woman did not appear to notice Tord. -She took something out of her pocket and hurled it down -into the depths. It struck the stone with a faint metallic -sound. Tord was now standing beside her. What had -she thrown down? The question burnt his lips but he -remained mute in spite of himself. She turned round and -was about to resume her progress, when a sound was heard -from the black bag she carried in her hand. She suddenly -pulled out a little grey kitten and kissed it:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Kirre,” she mumbled, “darling little Kirre....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The kitten was Tord’s fate, it broke for a moment the -spell of his dumbness:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What did you throw down?” he asked suddenly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She carefully put the kitten back again and answered -without looking at him, straight into the chilly darkness, -but in a tone of triumph and determination:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It was the key.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>“What key?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“To the studio, of course. Beastly, disgusting creature! -Now that’s done with at last!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then came her story, disingenuous, straightforward, -unblushing, and with a strong appeal. She had been living -with a sculptor who had recently returned from Paris. -She had been with him the whole winter. Oh, how she -had spoilt the beast! Cooked his food and been his model -all the day. She was posing as the young witch. “And -everybody said I was a splendid witch,” she exclaimed, -whilst an angry little smile flashed beneath the dripping -brim of her hat. But what had this beast of a sculptor -done when his lump of clay was ready? He had gone to -an uncle in Kalmar to get some money. He would be -back in a few days, he said. But no, not a sign of life -for a fortnight. She had been sitting there cold and -starving in company with the witch under her damp cover. -But now that was over. Now she had stuck a knife and -fork into the witch’s hands and an empty breadbasket on -her head and the sculptor’s old pipe in her mouth. And -now she had left and only taken Kirre with her. And -down there lay the key and it was impossible to find it -again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“So now you will have to get food for me and the cat -and a roof over our heads,” she said quickly to Tord.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord asked for nothing better. For once he did not feel -anxious or suspicious. She seemed to him like a hunted -animal. She was like the fox he had freed from the trap -and taken home.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He took her home to The Rookery. Not until the following -morning did he think of asking her name. She -was called Dagmar Bru and was the daughter of a Norwegian -musician in Copenhagen, she said. Probably -some dissolute fiddler who scraped in some low-class restaurant. -Her mother she could not remember. She had -worked at a lace curtain factory before she came to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>sculptor. Tord could get no more out of her and he did -not press her. He loved hearing how she had hated the -mill. There was style about her. Something wild and -free. A beautiful witch! She had fair hair, plentiful, -luxuriant, rough hair. A real mane. It was rather uneven, -for she had simply cut it off where it was entangled. -Any jewellery she could find she put on just like a savage.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar stayed at The Rookery. Tord would not let her -go. He loved her with a love that consisted largely of scolding -and sulking, and which was therefore sincere. He -needed her. At whom otherwise could he hurl his bitter -reflections on Woman. Once when he had been worse than -usual she threatened to go back to her father, the musician. -Then he felt how terribly empty it would be not to have -her as a butt for his reproaches. He became frightened, -frightened to the bottom of his heart lest she should throw -away the key of The Rookery as she had done that of the -studio. And then he suddenly did something that he had -never dreamed of before. He asked her to become his -wife.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar said that marriage would be something quite -new—one might always try it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So they had the banns read and drove to church on the -same day as the great family council met at Selambshof.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was warming her toes on the fender and quickly -swallowed a third cup of coffee:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Tord is an egoist,” she exclaimed in a tone of moral -indignation. “He is an awful egoist. He has no regard -for others.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>All agreed. Stellan’s ever watchful irony seemed to -have vanished. He found nothing ridiculous in such -words on Laura’s lips. He felt with a queer sort of bitterness -that in Tord the Selamb egoism had declined -from the high plane on which it was assured of success -in the world. He was dangerous, Tord, he did not hide -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>what ought to be hidden, he unmasked them all; he was -a caricature of them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stood watching in the window. He made a sign. -A cab came driving up the avenue. It was Tord and that -woman. No doubt about it. Tord wore a white tie. It -was the first time they had ever seen him in a white tie. -And the woman had a bouquet of flowers in her hand. -They had come from church....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan stamped on the floor:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Damn him! He must get out of this. I can’t have -him within five miles’ distance of my mess and my club!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We ought to have let the police take that woman,” -fumed Laura. “And Tord ought to be in some kind of -home. Hasn’t he even tried to shoot Peter?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had kept silent the whole time and looked very -mysterious. Now he thought the right moment had arrived:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I was out duck shooting a week or two ago,” he grunted. -“It was at a place called Järnö which lies far out at sea. -A fine island. And it is for sale. Fancy if we put Tord -in a boat and took him out there....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>At that moment somebody stepped into the hall. It was -Mrs. Dagmar Selamb in an open fur coat, white silk frock -and somewhat down-at-heel shoes. She did not look at -all nervous or anxious. There was something light-hearted, -something irrepressibly carefree about her:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How do you do,” she said. “I thought I would call -whilst I still had some decent clothes!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She was greeted by amazed, icy silence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar shook her fair mane with a little flash of impatience:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Perhaps it seems strange that I haven’t brought him -with me. He is playing with his Japanese mice, poor fellow, -and in his new black evening dress, too! We must -excuse him. ‘I won’t go up to those bourgeois!’ he -screamed. ‘But I am going,’ I said. ‘They have done -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>nothing to me,’ I said. Well, and here I am. The whole -family is assembled, I see....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Again a few moments of the same silence. Dagmar’s -features were at last overshadowed by a certain doubt as -to whether she was welcome.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter suddenly stepped up to her and took her -hand:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Congratulations,” he said, “congratulations.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And suddenly all of them smiled, struck by the same -thought as Peter. They were splendid, those Selambs. -They realised at once that it was important to gain an ally.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You can’t be very comfortable down in The Rookery,” -said Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar threw her coat on a chair and sat down by the -fire:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, it’s good enough for us.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter followed Laura:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But how would it be to have your own place?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar laughed:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I see, you want to get rid of us!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is for Tord’s sake,” continued Stellan. “We had -thought it would be a little surprise. He is such a lover -of nature....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I suppose it is somewhere at the end of the world,” -asked Dagmar.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Not at all,” Peter cut in. “It is out in the skerries by -the sea. You couldn’t have a finer view. And such lots -of game, sea birds and capercailzie and hares and foxes. -That would be something for Tord. Fancy to be one’s -own master and live exactly as one likes....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar’s eyes suddenly lit up:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The sea, you say. And do you think I could go out -every morning and lie down quite naked in the sunshine?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Of course, that’s just what I mean.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar was too absorbed in her thoughts to hear Laura -snigger.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>“I am perfectly mad on lying naked in the sunshine,” -she said, in a serious tone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good, then we agree.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, I like your proposal very much. But how shall -we manage to get Selamb to agree? He is so crazy sometimes, -poor fellow. You simply can’t imagine.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh! be careful in the beginning” said Peter. “Flatter -him a bit. Tell him that he has money enough to buy his -own estate. That he ought to free himself from that -cursed fellow, Peter the Boss. But our little sister-in-law -will know better than I what to say.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar rose smiling, pleased with the cunning which -she would display.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good, there’s my hand. I shall be like a snake. Good-bye, -all of you. He must have something to eat. I think -you are jolly nice, all of you!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With that Mrs. Dagmar Selamb went out in her shabby -shoes—not without a certain savage grace.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And so they bribed Tord’s wife on her wedding day.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The solemn family council laughed and laughed. Laura -writhed:—“Lying quite naked in the sun,” she screamed. -“I am mad on lying absolutely naked in the sun.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The laughter was soon followed by a quarrel, one of -the sharpest in the history of the family council. And -of course it was on a question of money. Tord had nothing -but his shares in Selambshof, no ready money. There -was first a keen debate as to who ought to collect the purchase -money. Peter sat silent and let the others talk. -Yes, Peter the Boss had suddenly become strangely indifferent. -His cigar seemed to absorb him completely. This -was a mock battle that he did not mind them fighting. -He knew very well that he was the only one who had -ready money. At last he said quietly that perhaps he -could manage to scrape together a little.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The others suddenly grew suspicious of Peter’s indifference.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>“You have been arranging the whole thing beforehand. -You think you are going to earn money by this. You -are going to cheat Tord,” they cried.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter defended himself like a bear amongst a swarm of -bees, half conscious of his guilt and half pleased, but without -feeling their stings very much. He blinked his eyes, -grunted and beat them off with both his hands.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good, don’t let us talk any more about it. I am not a -member of any smart clubs. I don’t entertain. I like -my whiskey and soda with Tord even though he does shoot -at me occasionally.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t talk nonsense,” Stellan cut in. “What conditions -have you thought of?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“A moment ago I was really prepared to buy some of -Tord’s shares,” Peter said reproachfully.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“At what price?” asked Laura with a sneer.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“At par,” grunted Peter. And it was as if he had torn -this offer out of his bleeding heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>His sister and brother laughed ironically, pitilessly. It -would be very nice indeed to be able to buy the shares at -that price. No, at least double. They were consumed -by a noble indignation. They were full of fight in the -cause of poor Tord. Peter was laid on the rack and was -mercilessly compelled to offer more and more. He pulled -faces, puffed, swore, writhed, but it was all of no use. -Selamb against Selamb, diamond cut diamond. Finally -they set to work coolly and keenly without the aid of lies. -Things went so far that there were threats of dismissing -the manager from his post. They all thought they had -been cheated by Peter. Now was the opportunity for revenge. -He was forced to give a binding guarantee of one -hundred thousand crowns for half of Tord’s shares and -not to take any commission on the purchase of Järnö.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus unconsciously Tord did a good stroke of business -whilst he sat there feeding his Japanese mice—thanks to -the envy of his brothers and sisters.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>As things turned out there was no need to handle Tord -delicately. He agreed at once when he heard of an island -full of living creatures. And the sea! That would -be something for his poetic bent. And when Peter, who -had done all he possibly could in the matter, came and -put the sixty thousand crowns that were left after the purchase -of Järnö into his hands, he was so astounded that -he forgot his suspicions for a whole week. Then for the -first time he began to tell Dagmar that that cursed Peter -had of course cheated him, though he could not say exactly -how.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was, as a matter of fact, right. Peter had at the -last moment got Järnö five thousand crowns cheaper than -his sisters and brothers were told. So he earned a little -on the business all the same.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus Tord moved out to Järnö with a lot of cages. He -had a whole menagerie. And Dagmar looked rather like -a tamer of wild animals.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The old dilapidated dwelling house lay in a little garden -among the small patches of cultivated ground below the -rocks in the southern part of the island. Tord could not -live there. It was too tame—too close to his tenant’s little -red cottage. No, they must build a log hut of coarse timber -on the highest cliff, a real eagle’s eyrie with a view -over his estate of stones and water!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here we shall find him later on, just as before in the -old Rookery by the muddy bay of Lake Mälare—but all -the same as if grown greater by the sea and the winter -loneliness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>END OF PART ONE</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span><span class='xlarge'>PART TWO</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c002' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span> - <h2 class='c005'>I<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>LAURA ENTERTAINS</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Laura cast a glance down the esplanade before she -pulled the blind. She had moved to Narvavägen now. -It was the most fashionable quarter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The September evening was clear and cool. The prosperous-looking -windows in the house opposite threw back -discreet golden reflections. The little church at the corner -looked like a luxurious bigoted needlework box. The recently -planted trees of the esplanade were as like each -other as soldiers in a row marching in column order out -towards the fields.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura sighed faintly and contentedly. Everybody was -back in town. The season was beginning.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She switched on the light. The cream coloured blind -completed the circle of coquettish intimacy. She sat down -at her dressing table. In the mirror she saw a face which -still retained the seaside sunburn. It suited her well, made -her hair still fairer and her teeth whiter. Laura was now -a woman of thirty. There was something of the fair renaissance -type in her plumpness, something at one and the -same time crude and refined. Her quick smile was full of -health and light impudence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But just now Laura was not smiling. On the whole women -are never so serious as when they are occupied with -their personal appearance. During the siege of the Legations -during the Boxers’ rising in China it is told that a -lady stole yolks of eggs, whilst people died of starvation -all round her, in order to preserve the colour of her hair. -That is serious....</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>Laura always had a long tête-à-tête with her face before -she paraded it in public.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She became very impatient as somebody hesitatingly fingered -the door handle and little Georg at last stepped in.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg was very like his father. He had his long face -and fair eyes. In this case the weaker had been the -stronger. It looked like nature’s revenge. She had always -the image of the wronged father before her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg smiled the hesitating smile of the neglected child. -There was a certain shyness about him as he crept up to the -mother.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s face hardened as she turned from the mirror:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t touch me! You soil my clothes.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg humbly drew back:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Mummie darling, may I stay up a little longer?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, you must obey Sofi!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But mummie, why must I always go to bed when people -come?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That’s enough. Run away now. I’m in a hurry!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He went slowly, looking troubled, but he stopped at the -door:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“May I sit and play in bed a little at least?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, but run away now!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Georg went to bed. And in bed he sat and drew -a picture of his mummie as a hobgoblin. But then he -grew frightened of what he had done and drew her as a -princess. And when Sofi came to pull down the blind he -lay awake in the twilight and listened to the guests. He -was accustomed to lie in the darkness and enjoy Laura’s -parties through closed doors.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg had not always been so lonely.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Just after the divorce, whilst Laura still felt her position -to be delicate, she had cultivated the ladies, well knowing -that it is they who make one’s position. Then she availed -herself of every opportunity to pose as a deserted mother -with her little baby. But her baby grew up and the ladies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>bored Laura. Nor did they feel very much drawn to -Laura. It was not that she made any mistakes. On the -contrary, at first she was very careful about her reputation. -But she made her friends restless in some way. They did -not like to see her entertain their husbands. They gradually -held aloof. Only the eccentrics and the bohemians -among them remained faithful to her, including a fashionable -woman sculptor and a middle-aged baroness who wrote -causeries on the fashions.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus there were mostly men at Laura’s little parties. -She realized this with a shrug of her shoulders, a contented -shrug. As a matter of fact she always felt at home with -men. But little Georg was not an additional attraction -for them. He was still exhibited now and then as an almost -newborn babe. But in the end the sweet little baby grew -too long in legs. And then Laura began to keep him -out of sight. She came to think of him more and more as -a tiresome encumbrance. She even grew ashamed of this -reminder of her age and of her past. Georg was under -the care of untidy, uncontrolled and incessantly changing -nurses. When Laura was travelling she boarded him out -with strangers wherever she might happen to be. And -when she entertained he was put to bed to be out of the -way.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had resumed her work in front of the mirror. -As the delicate task advanced towards the finishing touch -with the powder puff and the choice of perfumes and jewels, -her serious expression grew in solemnity.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Her movements became more deliberate like those of -an officiating priest. All these pastes, creams, essences -and perfumes were sacrifices and incense in a secret cult. -The dressing table was the altar and the image in the mirror -was the god. And just as a worshipper at the altar -ponders over the past and questions the future, so it was at -her dressing table that Laura became absorbed in recollections -and sought inspiration for her future plans. Her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>face thus participated very intimately in all she did. When -she thought of herself it was quite naturally of her hair, -her mouth, her eyes, that she thought. Her egoism flourished -under the spell of the mirrored image. The shadow -and the reality merged imperceptibly together. She was -sitting at the high altar of feminine selfishness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Stellan arrived, dressed in a dinner jacket. He -stepped without ceremony into the holiest of holies, patted -Laura approvingly on the neck, and threw himself down -in an empty chair beside the dressing table. You could -scarcely have seen that he was over thirty and that his life -during the last years had been rather stormy. His face -still bore an expression of self-satisfied, smiling irony. -Only the corners of his mouth had set, not into earnestness, -but into hardness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sister and brother had not met during the whole summer. -Laura tore herself away from the mirror with an -effort. She looked at her brother searchingly. It was as -if she looked in vain for something in his face:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“And now you have become a balloon pilot, too,” she -said, with a shrug of her shoulders. “How did you get that -idea into your head?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan played with a small lady’s watch of about the -size of a sixpence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, I did it in anger. I had to sell the Ace of Spades, -and it got into the papers. So then I found a way of cutting -out the cavalry. They look simply ludicrous down -below on their horses.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura did not answer Stellan’s smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do you know what I thought when I read about your -folly?” she said. “Oh, are his affairs in such a rotten -state?” I thought.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan frowned:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, dash it all, don’t think it is a subtle form of suicide. -Rather then as a new phase of my notorious passion -for gambling. I must have excitement. It is a game -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>with a rather higher stake than usual, that’s all....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, but how are your affairs?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My affairs,” said Stellan with a shrug of his shoulders. -“I have no affairs, only debts. But they are of no importance -anyhow. Just sufficient to keep me from getting fat. -They keep one up to the mark.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan’s financial position was bad. And still his superior -airs were not all pose. He did not worry over his -position. If he had done that he would have been lost. -It never occurred to him to refuse himself anything; on -the contrary. He, Stellan Selamb, must of course live up -to his position. The best was, of course, always for him -and his like. It is an enormous source of strength to have -such an inborn conviction. Because you usually get what -you consider should as a matter of course be yours.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was this elegant microcosm of upper class prejudices -that kept Stellan afloat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura looked at her brother with something almost resembling -admiration. His assurance, his elegant bearing, -his haughty smile, impressed her:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There is an easy solution,” she said in a significant tone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan suddenly looked bored. He understood only too -well what Laura meant. The great day of settlement was -approaching when he would have to produce the heiress -in anticipation of whom he had drawn so many bills.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Damn it,” he muttered, “you too! My colonel attacked -me the other day and asked if I did not mean to get married. -He must have heard something alarming. And do -you know what that idiot Ohrnfeldt said the other day when -I got him to indorse a note for me? ‘It is your duty as an -honest man to marry a rich girl,’ he said. Not bad, what? -I am a positive enigma to those honest souls. They think I -have let several fine chances slip through my fingers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, but why do you neglect those ... chances?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Ugh, it goes against the grain to do what everybody expects -me to do. I think it is ridiculous.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>Laura did not answer. She resumed her task at the -mirror. There is all the same something artificial in Stellan’s -recklessness tonight, she thought, not without anxiety. -Because she also had lent him money. Not much, -certainly, but more than she would like to lose.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan sat silent a moment staring at the absurdly small -lady’s watch, which seemed to have absolutely nothing to -do with anything so serious as time. Then he rose as if -he had suddenly noticed what time it was:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I suppose Manne is coming tonight?” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Of course.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good ... Laura, you must see that one of your financial -friends backs his new bills. Manne must have money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, because if he has any money, you will get some -too. Isn’t that so?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, Manne still has delightfully bad luck at cards.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The guests began to arrive.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s home was a meeting place for some younger -financiers and a certain set of officers introduced by Stellan. -Great interest was shown at Laura’s in aristocrats in -financial difficulty. And sometimes the play was high.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was a charming hostess at these highly original -men’s parties. She enjoyed queening it over these men -with a future or a past. She flirted gaily and without sentimentality -with both Mars and Mercury, with a secret -leaning towards Mercury. Yes, in the company of these -moneyed men Laura was perfectly at home. She enjoyed -the cool rapid talk of investments and bargains in shares. -Their lightning estimates and calculations gently stimulated -her. She was buoyed up and sustained by these speculative -chances. She constantly swayed between pleasant -irresponsibility and instructive calculations. Her cool -and sparkling head exercised, in the last resort, a natural -and easy domination over her senses. She played with -bold assurance, with her womanliness as the stake.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, Laura liked gambling, but she liked winners still -<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>better, winners who understood how delicately to share -their gains. Since she had observed that her fair type made -a special impression on Jews she had deliberately begun -to cultivate “the little black boys” as she called them. -This was the period of the first national industrial boom and -“the little black boys” were making larger fortunes than -ever. Because whatever happens in the world it is sure to -make the Jews wealthier. And Laura kept to the fore and -was given many a helping hand and many a hint which she -did not neglect to use to her advantage. People thought -that she liked to risk small sums for the fun of the thing, -but secretly she carried an a systematic and extensive business -by which she had collected a not insignificant fortune.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The last comer in Laura’s circle was Jacob Levy, the -lawyer.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy was a business lawyer, still quite young, but obviously -a man with a future. He had a large, but finely -chiselled nose, dark brown eyes and thin, ironically curled -lips. His was an international face, a face which seemed -as if for generations it had stared itself tired in all the markets -of the world. Though born in Sweden, Levy spoke -with a certain accent. His father was a Danish Jew and -his mother came from Poland. The ancient Swedish title -of his professional rank seemed incongruous in him. He -was a cosmopolitan, and money and the hazards of money -were his real home and country. Behind his mask of pale -indifference lay a passionate will and a cool, sharp observation -which sometimes got the better of him. In the -most impersonal tones he would utter extraordinarily insolent -truths, which sometimes cut straight across his own -interests.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura liked those truths, which had not yet however, been -directed against herself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan did not share his sister’s taste. He detested Levy -and treated him with an icy cold rudeness, which only -seemed to amuse him. They emphasized their respective -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>vocations as officer and lawyer and indulged, of course in -most general terms, in exquisite sarcasms at each other’s expense. -To keep to the general is often the best way to offer -personal insults. In the beginning the atmosphere was a -little chilly and depressed at Laura’s first dinner of the -season. Financiers sat stiff in a corner and looked as if the -State Bank had raised its rate, and the military kept to themselves -and discussed promotions and the damned journalistic -moles. The hostess herself hovered about with a -little frown on her brow. Perhaps it was Stellan’s irritation -that infected the others. He was not the only one -waiting for Manne von Strelert, everybody was saying,</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Wasn’t Captain von Strelert coming tonight...? I -hope Manne won’t fail us tonight...!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Good old Manne seemed to be a special attraction! At -last the cavalry arrived in all its glory. The talk at once -became livelier and gayer. Everybody chatted and laughed -round the tall young officer with the careless and mischievous -eyes. Though not a wit there was nevertheless a certain -distinction in all that Manne said. He was especially -characterized by a kind of good-tempered acquiescence in -his Fate. He was capable of anything impossible and was -always game. He realized that somewhere within him there -were numerous possibilities but it never occurred to him to -try to develop them. In his aristocratic helplessness he -had a certain likeness to those race horses which are so tall -that they can never feed themselves. They simply cannot -reach down to their fodder.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne von Strelert’s character was summed up in two -prominent and widely appreciated fundamental qualities: -he could not say “no” and he had a wonderful, glorious, -never-failing bad luck in gambling. To this it should be -added that for some time past the owner of Kolsnäs found -himself in an embarrassing financial position. Is it then -strange that all eyes lit up around him and that tonight he -was the greatest attraction at Laura’s dinner?</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>Stellan occasionally reproached Manne in gentle and -almost flattering tones for his extravagance. He had during -the course of years won somewhat large sums of money from -his old messmate and childhood friend. And tonight he -simply could not help winning more.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They had dined early so as not to be disturbed in their -play. Manne took the hostess in. That evening she -courted the army.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s manner varied entirely according to the category -of guests in which she happened to be moving. She -preferred to take her financiers one by one, and whatever -was said openly had often a hard metallic ring about it. -But with her officer friends she displayed a special abandon. -With them she was the personification of reckless -gaiety. Her playful coquetry, and her light-hearted, infectious -laughter at once threw open the gates to a paradise -of irresponsibility and golden unconcern. Yes, she -could be quite delightfully gay, Laura, a veritable <i>saute -marquis</i> and <i>vogue la galère</i>.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Finance did not mind this apparent neglect and watched -for an opportunity to grind its own little axe.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne von Strelert was not the man to resist any kind -of seduction, least of all Laura’s. He soon began to drink -her health, in all sorts of drinks, and to make a series of -perfectly absurd little speeches in her honour.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura frankly enjoyed the admiration, both coarse and -refined, of her hair and shoulders, of these connoisseurs of -horses and women. But in the midst of the laughter and -toasts her eyes now and then searched Levy and Stellan. -Nothing had been arranged beforehand. But it so happened -that they had every reason to be pleased with her. -There was surely—hang it all—no harm in her enjoying -herself to the full with dear old Manne, who at this moment -seized an opportunity of pressing her hand under -the table.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dinner was over and the party was just rising from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>table when Manne noticed some little pink shells that had -been brought in as ashtrays. He filled one with the last -drops of his champagne:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“One more toast,” he exclaimed! “A toast for the little -pink shell and the eternal line of curve.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And with his hand Manne indicated round his lady a -very significant wave line.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura pushed back her chair and stood there with her -bare white shoulders and a seductive smile. She lifted -her soft arms as if waltzing.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, I appeal to you, gentlemen, am I not round?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Indeed, indeed,” sighed Manne and kissed her shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Then you must see how one of our youngest Parisian -painters has imagined me,” she laughed. “I made a little -trip there a few weeks ago....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>All eyes turned upon Levy for a second. They knew that -he also had been to Paris a few weeks ago. He looked -quite unconcerned.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The most modern art is like an unshelled chestnut,” -he said. “Green and full of prickles.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I look like a starved green skeleton with mauve-coloured -frost bites,” Laura interposed, eagerly, with her cheeks a -little flushed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I told the great master that it was not kind of him to -make me so angular. Then he bowed and said: ‘Art is -free, Madame, and on this occasion it has not been able -to take any notice of your roundness.’ Yes, that’s what he -said. But come with me and look at the masterpiece for -yourselves.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With the whole troop of laughing men after her Laura -ran through the yellow drawing room into her little reading -and writing room where she had hung the curiosity. -She opened the door quickly and almost stumbled over -something that lay across the threshold.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was Georg. He had crept out of bed to peep at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>party through the keyhole and had fallen asleep at his -post. He lay there dressed only in his outgrown nightshirt -and with black streaks across his knees from his -stockings. There was an air of sad neglect and helplessness -over the whole emaciated little figure.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Who the deuce is that kid?” laughed one of the men, -who did not know that Laura had a child.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura grew rigid for a moment, but quickly recovered -herself and assumed as well as she could the pose of the -tender-hearted mother. She lifted up the boy, wrapped -him up as decoratively as possible in her shawl, and -kissed his cheek. And at this kiss from his mother Georg -awoke in the midst of the glorious party. Still half asleep, -he threw his arms round her neck and whispered something -out of his dreams: “Mummie ... princess all the -same.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Everybody politely applauded the group. Only Levy -was silent. He stood alone and stared obstinately at -the famous picture, which nevertheless was tame compared -with the geometrical excesses of some later -schools.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hm ... frost bites,” he mumbled in a low voice. “Perhaps -there is something in the frost bites all the same....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>His voice sounded quite impersonal, as if he had not -known what he was saying.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura carried off the boy quickly. She did not stop in -the nursery. From there they might hear. No, she went -all the way to her own bedroom. There she let loose her -anger. There she suddenly began to pinch and beat the -disobedient child who had torn away the veil, betrayed, and -exposed her. It was as if she had wished to take her revenge -for all the annoyance, and all the worries he had -caused her from the moment that she was first conscious of -his presence in her womb. It was as if she wished to take -her revenge for all the memories from Ekbacken, which -seemed to her unspeakably oppressive and outworn.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>“You were told to stay in bed!” she panted. “Why don’t -you obey? I shall smack you if you don’t obey!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg did not scream. He shrank under the blows and -glanced horrified at his mother. He did not understand. -Oh, how the pretty rings hurt when she beat him. And -just now she had smiled and kissed him. He did not understand. -His little soul was full to the brim with strange and -ghastly questions....</p> - -<p class='c009'>The memory of this terrible contrast was to remain with -him all his life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura suddenly felt ashamed and stopped beating him. -She felt a sort of gratitude that he did not scream, and she -led him back to his bed as if nothing had happened.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There, go to sleep now,” she said in a tone of indifference.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then she went back with her most charming smile -to her guests.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Play started. They did not start playing cards at once. -First of all they gaily laid their stakes at roulette. Laura -was banker and imitated the professional croupiers’ cry: -“<i>Faites vos jeux! Rien ne va plus!</i>”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura always had phenomenally good luck, and all laid -their stakes as if it were a tribute due to the hostess. -Then they began to play whist or bridge, which had just -become fashionable, in order to pass on to écarté or vingt-et-un -later on.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan from the very beginning appropriated the well-primed -Manne. It was interesting to see the two friends -together at the card table. Manne was no gambler. He -threw down his stakes with reckless optimism and with a -boyish challenge to Fate. And he swore a little in evident -surprise each time he did not win. Stellan on the contrary -was a born gambler, at once cold and passionate. Nobody -who saw him at cards could fail to see that this was his -great vice. His excitement showed itself in a slight pallor in -his smooth, distinguished features, from which everything -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>else seemed to slip away as from a polished metal. A blue -vein pulsed in his hard clear forehead. He spoke shortly -and sharply, and unconsciously raised his voice as if he -had been surrounded by deaf people. Forgetfulness, slowness, -or bad play drew forth his biting irony. He himself -had an astounding memory for cards and a keen sense of -observation. He took the game as seriously as if it were -a science, and he jealously guarded it as a precious joy -which a gentleman should know how to invest with a -certain cult. He impressed you at one and the same time -as an expert and custodian of chance. Thus he developed -in his friends a real devotion to play which concealed from -weaker heads among them its dangerously exciting and -undermining viciousness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During the course of years the stakes had grown bigger -and bigger. They started now where formerly they had -ended. Stellan won, but never enough. So it was today -again. It was usually not difficult to pluck poor Manne. -But just now he had had a little spell of absurd good luck, -which had decreased Stellan’s winnings. And Stellan had -to have cash. He then made a plunge, drove up the stakes, -doubled five times!—ten times!! One after another the -bids fell. Before Manne could turn around Stellan held in -his hand three thousand-crown notes and a cheque for five -thousand.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy had already finished playing bridge. He never -played anything else. Now he was standing by their table -looking on at the final spasms.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What’s this, Kolsnäs is not entailed?” he suddenly -asked in an indifferent tone. It seemed as if he had -not understood himself the impertinence of the question.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan expected a scene, but Manne was not his usual -self tonight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh no,” he muttered, “it is waiting for God’s chosen -people.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>“Why not just as well only for propertied people,” Stellan -cut in.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne rose. He suddenly looked sober and slapped -Stellan on the back.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are difficult tonight,” he said. “Now I must have -a whiskey and soda.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The art of losing gracefully never forsook him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan leant back in his chair and puffed hard at his -torn cigarette. He felt his winnings like a cool shiver in -his limbs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy was still standing beside him with a pale smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Shall we two play a little?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am rather tired.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy raised his voice so that he should be heard all over -the room:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Are you so anxious to keep your winnings?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan grew pale with anger and had a sharp answer -ready, but then it struck him that he might just as well be -engaged when Manne came back for his revenge. He -forced himself to a polite gesture towards the empty chair -and Levy sat down.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They continued with écarté and, against Stellan’s wish, -the stakes were high. This was something so unusual for -Levy that everybody gathered around them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now Stellan had no longer a sunburnt, cursing country -youth opposite him. Over his cards he saw a pale immobile -mask. It was the pallor of a race fifty generations -removed from forest and field but for whom calculation is -second nature. Yes, it seemed as if he had the very soul -of money pitted against him. He felt all the time that his -winnings were insecure and that he would inevitably lose.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy sat there with half-closed eyes as if half asleep, -and in the end won from Stellan all that he had won and -more into the bargain. He had seen that his opponent -was not at ease, and that he had had to win that evening. -And that is exactly the time when one is most likely to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>lose. Levy had only to wait till he had won enough in the -ups and downs of the game. Then he proposed higher -stakes than Stellan could afford. Then it was Stellan’s turn -to rise from the table and take a whiskey and soda.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How can you find anything in this miserable gambling?” -Levy scornfully flung after him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he kissed Laura’s hand and drove home with the -thousand-crown notes and Manne’s I.O.U. in his pocketbook....</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was late. All the guests except Stellan and Manne -had already said good-bye. Laura yawned openly. But -Manne insisted on staying and would not go.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Laura dear, do let me stay till six. Only till six when -my horse is groomed. I must mount him a moment before -... before ... oh, good God....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura knew what was coming. Manne was going to be -sentimental. The situation no longer had any novelty. -She had an irresistible longing to go to bed and with a -mocking curtsey entrusted Manne to the care of Stellan, -who never slept after a night’s gambling. Then she withdrew.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And as Laura sat in her lace nightdress and pink silk -boudoir cap and counted out her neat little winnings on the -eiderdown, Stellan and Manne lounged in their easy chairs -in front of the fireplace. The fire had gone out long ago.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The dawn was raw and dismal. Half-emptied glasses -with lip marks and thumb marks, cigar ash and stinking, -saliva-soaked cigar ends were everywhere. And then the -pitiless sharp grey light peeping in through the blinds and -the cold anguish of the dry air itself in a room where -people have worn out their nerves with barren excitement.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On the carpet lay a torn knave of spades grinning at -them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne began to talk about “the Glove.” He always -did at this time of night.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The Glove” was Manne’s pet name for a plump little -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>lady who had a glove shop in Regeringsgatan. For a long -time she had kept Manne at a distance and he had been -forced to purchase and make presents of an incredible number -of pairs of gloves in order to win her favour. And -now marriage with her was not the most impossible of dear -old Manne’s eccentricities. He was unfaithful to “the -Glove” now and then with ladies of his own class, but he -always returned to her, disappointed and full of remorse. -Her diligence, thrift, wordly wisdom and other bourgeois -qualities had for him an exotic attraction, the whole charm -of the incomprehensible.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne tried to kick away the knave of spades and looked -appealingly at Stellan with his boyish, humid eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If you only knew what a woman she is! Damn me if -the tears do not come into my eyes when she sews on my -buttons. And I had promised her not to gamble again! -What will she say when I tell her this?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan sat there shivering and sleepless, with the worries -of tomorrow like poison in his veins and nerves. He -was sick of Manne’s sentimentality. It was as if a night -frost had fallen on their friendship:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why the devil do you tell her?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne smiled a pathetic smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You don’t understand, Stellan. I can hide nothing -from her. I can’t. I should go mad at once if I did. She -is my reason and conscience, you know. We won’t go just -yet, Stellan. It isn’t six yet. And I must ride a little -before I talk to her....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne poured out a glass of soda water and swallowed -it in one draught:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Ugh!” he said, “how awful it all was!” And then he -suddenly began to talk about old Kolsnäs, about his father, -the late chamberlain, who had taken part in the battle of -Dybböl, and about his poor little shivering mother with -her sewing basket and screen and fires well into June. And -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>he talked about their long battle on the lake outside Stonehill -and about their riding trips in the Backa forest.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do you remember it all, Stellan? Those were fine -times, weren’t they, Stellan? My old home. It is a -damned shame. What have I done with it all now? I -am a traitor. Yes, a traitor. Curse it!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan, cold and numb, felt a shock pass through him. -Was this how matters stood? Was it as bad as that with -Kolsnäs?</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What nonsense are you talking?” he muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne stared anxiously at him:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Stellan, old man, it ... you had better not go to the -bank with my cheque ... not tomorrow, anyway....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why not?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Because there is nothing there, not a farthing.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You ought to have told Levy that. He won it from me.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>For the second time a shock passed through Stellan, as -he pronounced Levy’s name. But Manne sank back in the -chair staring straight out in front of him:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I shall have to clear out,” he muttered, half crying. -“Tomorrow I shall have to get away. What will ‘the -Glove’ say?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was again cool, tense, fully awake. He was one -of those people who do not know the meaning of melancholy -or remorse. Their egotism is so rounded and complete -that such things do not touch them. Neither can they -admit defeat. That would be the end of their world. -Adversity to them only points forward to new opportunities -to be seized.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy wants Kolsnäs, thought Stellan. Once again he -sat there, tense, cool and collected with the blue vein throbbing -in his forehead just as if the table and the cards were -again before him. Levy wants Kolsnäs, that’s as clear as -daylight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Each time he thought of Levy he felt as if he had been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>pricked by a spur. He hated Levy, and during these -moments he was learning a great deal from him. What -was it Levy had said? “How can you find anything in -this miserable gambling?” Yes, that’s what he said. -Things which had seemed impossible before seemed all at -once self-evident, final. Yes, of course, that’s it, he thought. -I’ll trick Levy and save myself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He suddenly looked Manne steadily in the eyes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do you know what it means to write cheques like that?” -he asked. His tone was so sharp that poor Manne was -startled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No...!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan blurted out the worst:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Prison, old man, if you don’t find the five thousand -by the time the banks open. Can you do it?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, it is impossible.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’ll try to get you the money, but on one condition—that -you won’t let Levy have Kolsnäs.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was a condition that the astounded Manne agreed -to with all his heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, because I think I know of a better buyer, if you -really can’t keep the estate. That’s agreed then. You -take your ride and confess to ‘the Glove’ and I will go -and hunt for the money. We meet outside the bank at -half past nine. Good-bye!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan called a cab and drove straight to Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter the Boss was of course impossible at Laura’s -parties. But there was all the same a secret channel of -communication between her drawing room and Selambshof. -Peter, too, had his interests in society.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan opened a window, climbed in and sat down on -the edge of his brother’s bed. He looked like a fat hog -when he was asleep. On the night table lay an old silver -watch, a cash book and a half-finished cigar. Peter -jumped up and rubbed his eyes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What the devil is the matter?”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>“Business. Kolsnäs is ripe. What will you give me -if I get it for you for five hundred thousand?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was not quite awake yet, but he could always manage -to appear indifferent at first.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Damn Kolsnäs,” he rattled, lighting the half-smoked -cigar.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan opened both windows. He also looked supercilious -and indifferent. From his manner you would have -thought he was the master, rolling in money, and Peter the -servant.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t talk nonsense,” he cut in. “You know you want -Kolsnäs like dear life.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter felt a mixture of fear and secret admiration for -his brother’s brilliancy and his careless way of handling -money. Stellan was, as a matter of fact, much more difficult -to trick than he had believed. Peter held nearly all -Stellan’s shares in Selambshof as security, but he didn’t -own them and there was a damned big difference between -the two things. But now this fine gentleman must surely be -in a difficult dilemma as he came so early in the morning.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You seem to imagine that I lie dreaming about Kolsnäs -since you come whilst I am still in bed,” ventured Peter -cunningly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I come from one of Laura’s shows. It was there I -saw this opportunity. The matter is urgent. Levy is after -the estate. What do you offer?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, five thousand!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan laughed aloud:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Ridiculous! I want fifty thousand.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now it was Peter’s turn to laugh.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are mad. You have no idea what a big sum fifty -thousand is.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Fifty thousand. Not a farthing less.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter began to dress. He tried to do so slowly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’ll send Thomson to Manne.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good! Thomson will be kicked out.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>“I’ll go myself.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You’ll only see me. Manne will settle nothing without -me. He has a horror of business.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, I’ll give twenty thousand.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good. Levy will get the estate.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thirty thousand.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Fifty, not a farthing less.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter whined, reproached Stellan for his extravagance, -dwelt upon the fabulousness of the sum and his own miserable -means. Meanwhile he calculated quickly and surely -and arrived at the result that anyhow it would be a good -stroke of business.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, I suppose I shall have to present you with fifty -thousand to spend on champagne and gambling.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sounded quite broken-hearted. But Stellan was -not at all touched. He even demanded five thousand -in cash. And as soon as Peter had produced the notes -he made off as quickly as he had come so that Peter sat -there and did not know what had really happened, and -believed it was some fine new way of robbing him of -some cash. But Stellan returned and in three days the -whole business was settled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne had, on Stellan’s advice, turned to the estate -agent, O. W. Thomson.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thomson has good connections with my brother, who -might reflect on Kolsnäs,” he said. “But it is better to -choose an indirect way, because you must not appear too -keen.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>At Manne’s request Stellan was present at these transactions. -That is to say, at all except the last and decisive -meeting. For by then he had already got his fifty thousand. -And he thought that Manne might as well bear the -responsibility himself if there should be any trouble. -The result was that Peter seized Kolsnäs for four hundred -and fifty thousand only by threatening to withdraw at the -last moment—offensively simple.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>Poor Manne was both sad and happy when it was all -over. He was ashamed to mention the fifty thousand to -Stellan and thanked him warmly for his help.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When drawing up the contract he had, by criminal negligence -and ignorance, completely forgotten to safeguard -the interests of the people on the estate. And this was -very hard on a number of old tenants and dependants who -had now no refuge but the workhouse.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He had spoken a true word of himself that night:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Traitor, traitor to his home and to the soil that had -nourished him.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And so it happened when Kolsnäs was thrown into the -market in Laura’s drawing room. It was not the first -estate that had suffered such a fate, nor would it be the -last.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This affair had scarcely become known before Laura -came rushing into Stellan’s room. She was furiously -angry.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You have behaved abominably” she cried. “You have -acted behind my back. Why was I not told anything? -I had almost promised Levy that he should be allowed to -do Manne that little service.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan made no effort to defend himself. He atoned -for his crime by giving his sister a beautiful bracelet of -brilliants. There were several of Laura’s jewels that had -their little history.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span> - <h2 class='c005'>II<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>PETER THE BOSS IN LOVE</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>One warm and calm Saturday evening in July Peter -sat alone in his office and examined his books. -Round about him Selambshof seemed deserted. -Not a single soul had been visible the whole afternoon. -But far away from Kolsnäs on the other side of the lake an -accordion was heard. They were dancing in a barn and -everybody was there.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter puffed aloud. He cursed the low, mellow, rich -sunshine and the still air in which so many small winged -creatures were hovering about! With his massive body -he felt alone and helpless. He had often felt so of late. -And then there was practically nothing else but the books, -the soiled, faded Selambshof books up on the shelf by the -fireplace, to busy himself with. But Peter did not look -only at the books of the current year, he went back several -years. Their soiled columns constituted his excursions -into the past, his diaries and memoirs. Here there were -entries and totals at which he had always smiled contentedly. -In his memory they were associated with all those -who had let themselves be cheated by him in one way or -another and sometimes he had the feeling of being amongst -good and faithful friends. Yes, there are many ways of -fighting loneliness in this world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Today Peter was more than unusually obstinate with -his books. He had already penetrated so far back in the -books that the handwriting was not his own scrawl nor -that of Inglund’s but a soft elegant handwriting with almost -sensuous curls and flourishes. It was Brundin’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>beautiful handwriting, which still made Peter feel sick. -He tried for the hundredth time to enjoy the stale sweetness -of victory. But it did not bring him joy. He still had a -queer feeling that Brundin had cheated him of something -... something that Peter the Boss would never -enjoy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then a woman dressed in white came tripping gaily -across the lawn, a plump little lady dressed in white with -a big white bundle under her arm. She disappeared round -the corner of the kitchen. Peter put out his head through -the window and called out:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hallo! There’s nobody at home there! Come in here -instead!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter looked very surprised when the woman with the -bundle came to the door of the office:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Upon my word, it’s ... isn’t it Frida?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She answered with fluent tongue:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes sir, it’s Frida right enough. I have the new laundry -at Majängen now—Frida Öberg, Laundress—No. -5, Solbacken. Here is the bill. Excuse my bringing the -laundry at this hour, but I had promised it on Saturday. -There is no change here at Selambshof, I see.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stood with the bill in his hand, staring at the laundress, -who had begun to pick collars, cuffs and starched -shirts out of her bundle. How strange that it was Frida he -was staring at, Frida of Brundin’s bedroom. That white -and soft creature he had one night caught a glimpse of -from behind the blind in the bailiff’s wing. This then was -the Frida of his timid, oppressive, light-shy boyish dreams. -There she stood, well preserved, smiling, insinuatingly -plump, equipped with such charms that not even the -simplest country yokel could help noticing them. Suddenly -she was enveloped by a warmth as from hot irons, thought -Peter. And far away at Kolsnäs they heard the accordion -again tuning up a dance. Then he felt a sudden furious -desire for movement, to make a noise and jump about with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>somebody in his arms. And he seized one of the shirts -and waved it about:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I hope you have washed the wedding shirt well?” he -cried out almost menacingly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why, are you going to get married, too?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, this very moment, if necessary. Don’t you hear -the wedding music? Shan’t we take a turn, we two?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With the shirt spread out before him he jumped about in -a sort of grotesque dance, threw his great arms round Frida -and began to jump about whilst the wedding shirt still -flapped about them. The worn floor-boards groaned under -Peter’s weight, the dust rose high and the flies buzzed away -frightened from the paper ball below the lamp in the ceiling.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Frida defended herself laughingly when Peter wanted -to kiss her:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I must go now, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stood perspiring and nervous and withheld the -money for the bill:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Won’t you have a look round old Selambshof for a -moment? There isn’t a soul at home. I reign alone here -now. Come along.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He pulled her with him up to the main building and, eager -and flushed, piloted her through the dusty closed rooms -where the old gloomy and worn-out furniture slept and -dreamed evil dreams in the heat and twilight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is so cursedly quiet here tonight,” exclaimed Peter. -“Can’t you laugh a little again so that I may hear what it -sounds like?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Frida laughed, but the echo came back hollow and scoffing -from the depths of the corridors. Then they entered -the green smoking room off the hall, which resembled a -thousand other smoking rooms in so far as it contained -an equipment of guns, deers’ horns, elks’ heads and stuffed -birds. Peter seized the opportunity to impress upon her -what a wonderful Nimrod he was and what an expert on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>the secrets of animal life, especially of animal sex attraction. -He imitated the call of the capercailzie, he described -the feathers of the mating ruff and its collar of feathers -and finally he imitated the night call of the ruttish elk -and its stamping so that it echoed through the whole of -the empty house. Meanwhile he drew nearer and nearer -to the door of the next room where he slept in the summer -because it was so much cooler there than in his own wing. -But when Frida saw that they were approaching the bedroom -she wisely stopped on the threshold and not even the -wildest and most seductive bird-calls could make her penetrate -further. No, now she suddenly remembered that she -ought to have met a friend long ago. She thanked him -for all the kindness he had shown her and insisted on going. -Then Peter became furious and reproached her coarsely -for her behaviour with the bailiff:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If that blackguard was good enough, I ought to be too—don’t -you think so?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>A hard look came into Frida’s eyes and she hissed out -as if testing a hot iron with her wet finger:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I should like to tell you, sir, that I am on my own now -and don’t need to listen to anybody.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t be so high and mighty. It was I who managed -things so that you escaped examination when Brundin was -caught, because I was sorry for you.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had no proofs at all that she too was involved in -Brundin’s frauds, but he always seized an opportunity of -boasting of his kindness and of threatening a little. Frida -was not at all frightened. No, but she was too worldly-wise -to issue a challenge to money and power.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She therefore contented herself with lying in a humble -tone about the whole affair:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I had nothing to do with that scoundrel, sir. -And besides a poor girl can’t understand all that men -do....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>By now Frida had already backed out on to the stairs -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>and as soon as she felt safe she at once adopted her most -seductive manner again:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I hope I may iron many wedding shirts for you, sir,” -she said, and curtsied and smiled and tripped gaily away, -white, plump and coquettishly swaying whatever was capable -of being swayed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stood on the stairs mumbling curses after her. -Then he climbed breathlessly up into the observatory and -watched with his glass to his eyes where she would emerge -from the avenue into the road. He followed the white -little figure in the twilight till it disappeared in a strange -black house up on the ridge of the hill over Majängen.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A woman had entered the life of Peter the Boss. He -was in love, positively in love with Frida Öberg, owner of -the Majängen Laundry, No. 5, Solbacken.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had never been able to associate with decent women. -He was frightened of the “guinea hens,” as he called -them. He grew nervous and hot from the unaccustomed -effort of not saying anything coarse or mingling curses -with his speech. He even felt a sort of fear of his sister -Laura. Once many years ago she had dragged him into -a set of Lancers and that was one of his most awful memories. -Even today he felt a shiver down his back whenever -he saw a dress suit. Thus it is clear that Peter’s -erotic experiences were of the simplest. They were all -lost in the fog that lies between the revels of the evening -and the sore head and sordid regrets of the morning.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But now he was in love, but it was a delight mingled -with not a little worry and anxiety. From the very start -he felt love as a threat to his purse. He had anxious little -suspicions that he was now more susceptible to cheating -than before. For the first time he had to be on his guard -not only against others but also against himself. “Ugh, -this will be an expensive business,” he thought, when the -longing to see Frida again came on him. She is no fool, -that little witch! She won’t do anything for nothing. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>positively endowed her with a calculating cunning and a -mysterious seductive self-interest. But the more difficult -and dangerous he made her, the more he must love her. -Peter the Boss suspected a soul akin to his own.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He made up his mind not to appear too eager. No, I’ll -wait till she brings the laundry again, he thought. But -time passed, until he could not wait and began to hover -about Majängen.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was not exactly a pleasure to walk about there. There -were no decent roads, but only heaps of stones and clay -holes, for the company had long ago sold all the sites -and had thus no interest in fulfilling its vague promise -as to the construction of roads. Besides, the inhabitants -of Majängen were unpleasant people. All the earliest purchasers, -honest workingmen and small tradespeople, who -had bought the ground and built upon it at too high a price, -had been forced to leave their marsh-dwellings. In their -place a floating population had found its way out to Majängen. -The worst scum of the town population was to be -found there. And Selambshof and Peter the Boss were not -exactly loved by them. They rightly considered that it -was his filth they had to wade in up to their knees and that -it was on his heaps of stones they almost broke their legs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So that when in his rosiest and most gentle dreams Peter -wandered about there, he was perturbed by expressive -glances, tightly clenched fists in trouser pockets and long, -rude oaths at the house corners. And in the windows -there teemed pale and dirty children who took their fingers -out of their mouths in order to point at him as the bad man -from Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>All that would not have mattered so much if Peter could -only have caught a little glimpse of his beloved. But he -never saw her outside in the clay, no plump smiling face -showed itself above the window curtains of the laundry -up in the “asphalt” house. Thus he had christened the -big two-storied ramshackle house half way up Solberget, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>because it was covered with asphalted cardboard outside the -boards, and none of the successive owners had been able -to afford to repair the outer boards, so that it remained -there as black and dismal as it had been three years ago. -And it was confoundedly difficult to get to it, for there -were only steep narrow wooden steps leading past the entrance -and Peter could not climb up and down them all -day long in order to steal a glance through the window -panes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Life is hard,” thought Peter, “you never meet those you -want to meet.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the end he went home and wrote a letter. There are -many ways of interpreting one’s feelings. Peter’s was not -very personal because his eloquence was based on a lover’s -advertisement in a newspaper and of course any mention of -marriage was carefully avoided. And somehow the handwriting -was not quite his. And he did not sign it Peter -Selamb, but “Frida’s own Elk.” That is what he did.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Never put your name unnecessarily to any document...”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The answer came by return post and was both pleasing -and disquieting. Frida wrote that she was doing well and -did not need to bow down to anybody, but that she might -find use for a new Laundry stove of the Orion make and a -blue silk coat with white revers. And then she allowed -herself to hint at the possibility of further sympathy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter fully realized the risk of payment in advance, but -he also understood that without some magnanimity he -would make no progress at all. So with a swimming -head he sent a round sum for the two objects aforesaid. -At the same time he wrote that he had found a little refuge -well protected from the eyes of the world where they might -meet and sympathize. The refuge was Stellan’s flat. Stellan -had been ordered North again, much to his annoyance, -and Peter had charge of the keys. He now hurried to the -elegant little two-roomed flat in Karlavägen, removed the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>name plate, aired the rooms, put away all Stellan’s belongings -into the wardrobes and sat down to wait.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Frida arrived dressed in the new blue silk coat and with -the whole warmth of the new Laundry heater of “Orion” -make around her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I always keep my promises,” she whispered, “I’m made -that way.... But goodness me! how smart this is. Are -you living here too, Sir?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have taken all this for your sake, Frida,” said Peter -pressing her to him. “It has cost me a good deal.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then at last Peter got his reward....</p> - -<p class='c009'>He lived in supreme well-being in a world of peace. -Late on Sunday morning, long after Frida had stolen home, -he lay quite still and watched the sunlight creep across the -beautiful Persian carpet. It was a strange feeling of relief, -it was as if it was only now that he had at last given -the <i>coup de grâce</i> to the nightmare of his youth, the stubborn -Brundin.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>If Peter imagined that Frida now belonged to him, without -any further expense, he was mistaken. A few more -such moments and she considered herself free again. And -so she let him understand in a delicate way that new favours -had to be bought with new offerings. Peter suffered, but -he suffered more in his greed than in his affection. He was -so accustomed to think that everything depended on money -that he could scarcely imagine a man being loved for his -own sake. He puffed and whined—but paid. He did not -even try to press down her demands by simulated indifference. -Such is love.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So things went on for a few months. Then one fine day -Peter received a letter in which Frida herself proposed a -meeting without mentioning any fresh gifts. He was just -about to welcome her, feeling heartily content, when he -was checked by an inward shock. He suddenly remembered -some land he had once bought when the seller in apparent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>absentmindedness had registered the transfer in his own -name instead of the purchaser’s.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was the only time he had ever been completely taken -in.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter read through Frida’s letter again. It was too eager. -It was not quite the same old Frida. He felt a slight presentiment -of something unpleasant. A voice whispered in -his ear to be on his guard. He knew what it all meant. -He sat long and worried in front of the clean sheet of note -paper. In the end he wrote something about important -business which prevented him from meeting her just then. -After this extraordinary exercise of self-control Peter felt -very sorry for himself, so much so that the tears came into -his eyes. He wandered about puffing and sighing among -the fields of Selambshof, a victim of desire, suspicion, hope -and fear. Into the bargain Stellan wired that he was coming -home immediately from the North, so that Peter was -obliged with a bleeding heart to screw the name-plate on -to the door again and set out all the photographs of horses -and ladies. Thus the discreet little free retreat for his -amours disappeared from view. Then another letter from -Frida arrived in which she begged and prayed to be allowed -to see her own Elk very soon. Peter was really touched. -It was sweet to hear her beg like this. All there was of -hunger and love in his great body stirred within him. But -he felt at the same time that the thing was growing more -and more dangerous. “I must be strong,” he thought, “very -strong.” And he did not answer the letter, not a line....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was not left long in doubt. It was as he had suspected, -Frida was expecting a child. She absolutely must -see him, she wrote. She was so ill and so run down. If -he did not arrange things for her at once she would drown -herself....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sat long staring at the letter and it did not affect -him in the way he would have thought. Instead it rather -comforted him in a strange way. It cooled his desire to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>think of her growing more and more unshapely and ugly -every day.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh no,” he muttered, “you won’t drown yourself. I -have paid for what I have had. We are square. It is high -time for me to return to my senses.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The long tug of war between his love and his purse had -ended in a victory for the purse.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter burnt all Frida’s letters and did not answer a word. -He had decided to regard the affair with Frida as a dream. -And he knew he could do it. There was not a trace of -proof. So wonderful was the instinctive cunning of this -man that he had not sent a single line signed with his name, -written in his own handwriting, or even posted at Selambshof. -And scarcely once had he been seen in Frida’s company. -She on her side had from the first had every reason -to keep the matter secret, because a liaison with the hated -Peter the Boss would at once have driven away all her -customers in Majängen.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter was not to escape as unscathed as he had imagined. -Frida was not at all the sort of person to allow -herself to be hanged in silence. For a time she continued -to bombard him with letters, full of entreaties and reproaches. -Then she began to hang around Selambshof, -big, swollen, with a sinister spotted face and awful to see. -Peter kept a sharp lookout and succeeded for a long -time in avoiding her. But one winter evening she suddenly -confronted him in the avenue. Peter did not even greet -her, but walked on as if he had not noticed her. Then she -seized him by the sleeve and poured over him a wild flood -of curses and threats. There were no witnesses. Peter let -the flood pass over him with great calm—yes, positively -with a kind of enjoyment. Only now when he heard her -voice and saw her body did he feel the child as something -real. And in his innermost heart he no longer doubted -that it was his. No, it was almost a pleasure to think how -something of himself was irresistibly developing within -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>her. He enjoyed that sensation with the last cruel glowing -spark of his love. But his voice was low and ice-cold -when at last he answered her. And he spoke slowly as -if he wanted to impress something for all eternity upon -her consciousness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Not a farthing,” he said. “Take from what you and -Brundin stole. From us you have had enough.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With that he shook her off and went away.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Frida ceased to hover around Selambshof. She adopted -new tactics. She stayed at home in Majängen and talked. -There was no longer any truce of silence. To everybody -who came she opened her heart concerning the scoundrel -at Selambshof, who would not do the proper thing. -As the unhappy victim of Peter Selamb she won much -sympathy and many new customers in Majängen. Her -laundry was besieged by the women and became a sort of -focus for the hatred of Peter the Boss. The whole community -waited excitedly for the Spring Sessions.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But a good deal was to happen before then, and Peter -would have several reasons for reflecting on Majängen this -winter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was the old business of the water supply. It had -been decided after several stormy meetings that water was -to be laid on in the houses at Majängen. It was necessary, -because the wells were insufficient and tainted. Part of -the necessary money had already been collected and then -Peter’s permission to lay down the pipes was sought. It -was considered to be only a matter of form. The streets -were of course his, but even if he did not fulfil his promise -of making roads it never occurred to anybody that he would -deny the people he had humbugged facilities for the pipes. -But that was exactly what Peter did.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The ground is mine, and if you want to put down -pipes you will have to pay for them,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This answer was unworthy of Peter the Boss. It could -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>be no pleasure to have a hotbed of epidemics just outside -your door. He acted in direct opposition to his own -interests. But it is a fact that one hardening of the heart -brings in its train others. He was furious with everything -that was brewing against him in that dark <i>charnel</i> house. -And he hated to think of the coming Spring Sessions. And -that is why he said “No,” an obstinate, sullen, impossible -“no,” which, as we have said, was quite unworthy of the -cleverness of Peter the Boss.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This was too much. The newspapers then got hold of -him. The reporters were about to catch the mood of the -winter twilight. They described the horrors of the outskirts -of the town, the struggle between town and country, -tearing each other to pieces in an indescribable chaos, the -bottomless roads, the ragged hillside, the torn pines, the -maimed, squinting, hunchbacked, cold-sweating, ramshackle -houses. And in the midst of it all came the Salvation -Army to their red barn with “Blood and Fire” over the -cross on the door. “Starvation and Frost” were everywhere -and thus the symphony was complete. Here hope, -misfortune, idleness, thrift, crime and the new life thronged -together. Here the scum that the town had cast out huddled -together with the indomitable spirits that boldly sought a -new life on new ground. And just now when all the good -influences were co-operating, after a pathetic struggle, in -an united effort to make something worthy of human beings -out of their grey stone hill everything was brought to nought -by the mere word of Peter Selamb. Who was this gentleman -after all? Well, he was the manager of Selambshof. -He sat there in his sinister highwayman’s lair and took -toll from the citizens of the town and grabbed all the land -that the town required. We are suffocating, we want air, -we want to get out! Very well, please pay up. Everybody -must pay toll to Peter Selamb of Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>People did not choose their words. The newspapers -outdid each other in indignation. They were of course -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>right. But it is not always well to be too much in the -right—not even for a newspaper—</p> - -<p class='c009'>The hammer blows rained down with a frequency sufficient -to fell an ox. But Peter merely blinked his eyes. -He did not understand how anybody could be afraid of -the press. He had no real respect for any other kind of -letterpress than that which is to be found on bank-notes -and in the paragraphs of the penal code.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do these damned journalists want to teach me how to -build suburbs?” he muttered with an almost compassionate -shrug of the shoulders. And he did not budge an inch -on this matter: “The ground is mine. If they want to -put down pipes, they will have to pay.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After a few weeks the newspaper campaign against Peter -the Boss subsided. It had had no effect.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As for Frida, things took their course. It is seldom that -the birth of a child has been awaited with such general -interest. The women in Majängen talked of nothing else -when they met at the wells, laboriously to pump up the -grey and ill-flavoured clay water. Round this child the -hopes of the whole community for vengeance on Peter the -Boss were centred.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At the end of March, Frida Öberg gave birth to a son, -who was named Bernhard.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then Peter received a summons to appear before -the Court and he arrived in a grey suit in his dog-cart with -old “Interest.” And when he came he appeared neither -haughty nor humbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The Court lay by the high road some distance away from -the suburb. But all Majängen was of course there. The -crowd stretched out as far as the yard. Peter stepped forward -with half-closed eyes and a good-tempered grin on -his face. Nobody could say he looked frightened. He -slapped some of the men on the back:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Make room, boys, nothing is going to happen without -me, anyhow.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>A Swedish crowd is harmless when it is sober. People -stared and made way. But a coarse voice was heard:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He ought to be hanged....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had now reached the hall. On the other side of -the long table with the judge and the jurymen sat Frida. -She had a bundle in her arms. She stared Peter straight -in the eyes and lifted up the child so that he should really -see it. Then a murmur passed through the hall and the -jurymen put their close-cropped heads together. Peter -turned away his eyes at once, shrugged his shoulders, and -bowed to the judge as if to say: “As between gentlemen, -cut the whole thing short.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Through his friends he had conveyed to the judge the -truth about Frida Öberg: An easy-going wench, maid at -Selambshof, an affair with the fraudulent bailiff, dismissed -with him, vengeance, blackmail, etc.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The baby began to cry. Did Frida pinch it for effect or -not? The judge, who looked as if he were at a meeting -of shareholders, glanced up from his papers with a -wry face:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Is it necessary to bring the child here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Frida jumped up, grateful for this opportunity to make -a demonstration. “What am I to do when I am poor -and alone, sir? I have nobody to look after the poor -boy.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The judge remarked in a dry voice that he had been -informed she had a laundry and that her sister was working -with her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last the summons was read and the judge began his -questions. When Frida once began to speak, she could -not stop, but flung herself with such a primitive force and -such a naïve matter-of-factness into the dismal love story -that the judge at once thought it wise to order the hall to -be cleared.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter grinned with malicious pleasure as the angrily muttering -inhabitants of Majängen shuffled out.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>When Frida had finished, Peter rose, looked at the wall, -and stoutly denied everything.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then a witness was called. Peter suddenly recognized -with a certain discomfort the porter at Stellan’s house. -Well, it appeared that he had never seen them together, -but only believed he had noticed that they both stayed on -the second floor. Peter was calm again. He had won -worse cases. Then the judge showed him a love letter -signed “Bull Elk,” on the reverse side of which there -appeared a part of the Selambshof receipt stamp. Peter -boldly denied everything except the stamp. But he began -to feel rather glum.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The parties were dismissed during the deliberations of -the Court. Frida sat in the midst of a crowd of women -and suckled the baby. But Peter went out and patted old -“Interest.” He stood there stroking and stroking and found -it difficult to look up. He felt hate all round him like -something prickly. He no longer felt safe. He would -probably have to resort to ... the last ...</p> - -<p class='c009'>After a long delay all were admitted into the Court again. -It was black with people but absolutely silent. The oath -was taken.</p> - -<p class='c009'>All eyes were fastened on Peter the Boss. He seemed -to shrink and grow smaller as he stood there. Now he -looked like an old bent and grey peasant. Would he do -what peasants had been accustomed to do so often before -in similar cases?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stepped slowly up to the table. He felt just as -if he were walking in a vacuum. He seemed to be paralysed -in the arm when he wanted to place his hand on -the Bible, the greasy old court Bible, which had seen so -many things. He could not help glancing at Frida. She -also had risen and taken a step towards the table. She -looked at him with an expression in which hatred and -anxiety mingled with a strange cold curiosity. The child -also stared at him with vacant black eyes. And a little -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>hand moved with awkward, blind jerks. Peter suddenly -thought of a newborn, trembling young fox which he had -once pulled out of its lair and killed with the butt end of -his gun. He felt queer, sick. He was afraid ... afraid.... -For a moment he let his hand fall....</p> - -<p class='c009'>The judge fixed him with his eye:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, what’s the matter? Can’t you take the oath?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter started. He suddenly heard Stellan’s clear sneering -voice:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Clodhopper! In love with an old servant girl, what? -Ridiculous!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He placed his hand on the Bible again. The judge recited -the oath with the expression of one who had been -offered at dinner hare that was too high. Peter repeated -it after him. He wanted to speak quickly, but he could -only get the words out slowly. His voice was thick and -indescribably humble and there was in him something of -the fat rat and the lascivious dog.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Frida had been quiet, surprisingly quiet during all this. -Then her voice was suddenly heard. There was no cry, -no sob, no longer any affectation:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He swore false all the same.” And it sounded like a -weary statement of fact.</p> - -<p class='c009'>With that the case was finished and the defendant was -acquitted of responsibility for the child. The judge muttered -something to the Clerk of the Court and the jurymen -next to him. Nobody in the hall moved. Peter was the -first to go out, straight past all the amazed, loathing and -disgusted faces that stared closely at him. He staggered -out into the cool, dazzling April sunshine. He stood there -fumbling with the reins and patting old “Interest’s” back -and muttered inanely:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How have things been with you, old girl? How have -things been with you? They have been playing hell with -your old master, really hell.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter got up in his dog-cart and drove with slack reins -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>down towards the point where the road to Selambshof -turned off. Then he suddenly heard behind him a prolonged -shrill, strident whistling, a sound that seemed to be -pure venom.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was a greeting from Majängen. It was the signal of -a long and bitter guerilla war.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had won his case—but he felt all the same confoundedly -dismal. He could eat nothing for dinner, though -he took a couple of appetisers. And things did not improve -when Stellan rang up. Fancy he had heard of it -already. He was absolutely furious:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Scandalous,” he cried, “grotesque—that sort of thing -should be settled on the quiet. You are a damned clodhopper, -you make us all impossible.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter put down the receiver, hurt, sad, almost ready to -cry. “Abuse,” he thought, “nothing but abuse. And all -the same it was really for Stellan’s sake that I ... -swore....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With the coming of dark, Peter began to be frightened. -He could not forget all those eyes staring at him in the -hall. And every one of them knew that he had forsworn -himself. Perjury! What did that matter now, when nothing -could be proved. He had put his hand on the book -and repeated what that damned judge—who as a matter -of fact was a rake in financial difficulties himself—had -said. But he, Peter, had not asked to lay his hand on the -book. It was the Court that had forced him into entirely -unnecessary folly. Anyhow he had certainly won his case. -Why the devil then should he have to lay his hand on the -book? The book, the book ... Peter suddenly felt cold -inside. The old terror of his childhood rose out of the -depths of the past and seized him. He had of course never -felt anything so noble as an honest doubt. He had never -felt any sort of contact with the powers for which the Bible -stood. A little piece of Kristin’s and Hedvig’s hard old -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>God, the centre of Selambshof’s gloomy crippled terror, -still survived deep down in his soul beneath the rich flora -of lies and dishonesty. “So help me God in body and -soul,” yes, that was what he had sworn. Supposing God -should punish him now! Supposing he were to take away -from him all that he possessed! Supposing he had to -sit naked, starved, and alone in the dark forest just as he -had dreamt as a child!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was afraid of the God in the book, afraid as a -negro of his fetish....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Oh, if only he had had Hedvig to talk to. She knew -all about that sort of thing. She was the medicine man -who knew the appropriate spell...!</p> - -<p class='c009'>The clock had already struck twelve when Peter set out -to look for a Bible in the great dark owl’s nest called -Selambshof. From one room to another he walked searching -in every corner, but without finding what he looked -for. At last he crept stealthily into the housekeeper’s room -like a thief and stole her Bible from her night table. -Then he sat down to turn over the pages, greedily fastening -on everything that spoke of wrath and threats and punishment. -With swimming head and smarting eyes he made -himself drunk with fear. At dawn he staggered trembling -and shivering into the office and took a thousand-crown -note out of the safe. And he spread it out so that he -might really see how large it was. Then he put it in the -housekeeper’s Bible—at one of the worst passages....</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was the way out of Peter the Boss. He tried to -bribe God with a thousand crowns.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As soon as it was dark the following evening he stole -towards Majängen with the note in his pocket. It would -have been simpler of course to send the money by post. -But that was not good enough. The post is such a silent -and mysterious institution. He was afraid that his sacrifice -would go unnoticed by the Lord. And if he could -“bull” shares by his self-abnegation that would be all to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>the good. So he would deliver the money himself—though -of course without witnesses. Otherwise it might be dangerous.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter crept forward in the rain with the brim of his -hat turned down and his collar turned up. It was really -bold of him to go to Majängen now, but he was not the -first whom fear has made bold. He slipped, stumbled, -and stepped into holes in the darkness on the bottomless -roads. Several times he thought he heard steps and whispering -voices behind him. But these sounds were at once -drowned in the soughing of the poor meagre pine branches -which were struggling against the storm somewhere up in -the darkness above his head. Now he would reach the -asphalt house in a moment. Black as misfortune it hung -there over the damp edge of the cliff. The laundry was -closed, but there was a light in the window. Peter was -just going to sneak up the long wooden staircase to reconnoitre -when suddenly there came something whizzing -through the darkness. It was a rain of big stones. Peter -drew back a step but was hit by the next shower in the -back just below the neck and also on the head. He fell -forward without a sound, and lay there in his own clay -like a sack of sand.</p> - -<p class='c009'>These were the first shots in the war between Selambshof -and Majängen. Fatal hits. Peter was after all on the -way to his woman and child. There was perhaps after all -just a chance of Peter turning human being.... But then -the stones intervened...!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was unconscious and half suffocated by the clay. -The thousand-crown note still lay in his pocket and it never -reached its destination. He woke up in his bed at Selambshof. -And his first thought in the midst of all his pains -was: “That’s what you get for trying to do good...!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had to stop in bed quite a long time. He had -injured his spine. He got up again even more bent, more -pale and more flabby in the face than before.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>He was now a man without pity. If Peter the Boss had -had before his sentimental moments, they were now a thing -of the past. And he had, as it were, grown too coarse -for all fear. And he procured for himself a watch-dog—a -great, shaggy, wolf-like monster—chiefly for the pleasure -of seeing people anxiously sneaking past Selambshof. And -then the harsh barking of the dog was a kind of company -at nights. For Peter had begun to find difficulty in -sleeping.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span> - <h2 class='c005'>III<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE ANGEL OF DEATH</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Hedvig’s and Percy’s marriage had for long been unconsummated. -At first in the Swiss mountain sanatorium -Hedvig was not allowed to live in the same -house as her husband. Later on when he was better she still -remained his nurse.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Think of your fever,” she said, and withdrew gently -from his delicate approaches. “It is your duty to get well, -Percy dear.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy was all too far away from the thousandfold stimulant -of art from which in his longing and his imagination -he had otherwise derived vitality. His natural submissiveness -was still further fortified by the strict discipline -of the sanatorium. So he yielded and always acquiesced -in her cold sisterly behaviour to him. But only to approach -her again at the next opportunity with the same persistent, -childlike, half-embarrassed supplication for love. -And if he had not done so Hedvig would certainly have felt -secretly hurt and worried. After having wandered about -the whole day in the pure cold air and in the light of -the white snow-capped peaks, among the brotherhood -of suffering and among the recaptured convalescents high -up in the seclusion of the alpine world it was pleasant -in the evening to whisper a soft “no” to the adoring husband. -There was rehabilitation in it. It healed old -wounds. It was an innocent triumph. She lived through -happy days. There was nothing that tempted or scorched -or tore at the heart. There was just life enough for Hedvig -Hill.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>“No, Percy dear. For your own sake. Your temperature -would rise....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And she uttered her “no” in the same tone as others -would whisper their “yes.” “See how I sacrifice everything -for you,” she seemed to say, “my best years, my womanhood, -my beauty, I sacrifice all for you, darling Percy.” -Even to herself she made a sacrifice of her half-heartedness -and her fear—though she probably suspected in her inmost -heart this unsatisfied longing of Percy’s was in the long -run more dangerous to him than ordinary life together as -husband and wife. The truth was that Hedvig Hill sipped -at what she did not dare to drink at one draft. She hugged -to herself the glimpse of pain she saw in Percy’s glance -after her refusal. She cherished the mist of pulsing blood -in his blue eyes, so like those of a precocious boy. And -she warmed her lonely bed with it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then one day came when Percy was—not cured, because -a complete cure seemed almost out of question—but anyhow, -so much better that he could think of moving about -in the world once again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The doctors spoke of the south.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig felt a nervous dread of all that was to come. -It was as if they were being turned out of a safe refuge, -she thought. She would have preferred to remain amongst -the brotherhood of the doomed, bewitched by the mountain -spirits up there into a half-life in the big white monastery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But Percy, would it not be safer to spend one more -winter in the sanatorium?” she whispered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy shook his head and smiled. He had been very -mysterious these last days; he had sent off and received -a number of telegrams.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Where are we going? Wouldn’t it be best to go home?” -wondered Hedvig.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are going to have a magnificent present,” cried -Percy, who glowed with the pleasure of planning, acting -and moving about after years of supervision and inactivity.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>So they went down into the valley when the first September -days had already sprayed the woods with gold. There -the train stood ready. The smoke, the noise, the jolting -about soon tired Percy, who was so spoilt with fresh air -and quiet. Then Hedvig turned nurse again, and wrapped -him up in their reserved compartment. But that evening -the train rushed into a town by the sea under the mountains. -It was Genoa and they at once went aboard a steamer -which seemed to have waited only for them in order to -depart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But where is this boat going to? Where are we going?” -wondered Hedvig.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She positively knew nothing. Percy only smiled mysteriously.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One brilliantly fine morning they went ashore at white -Cadiz.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Here is my present,” said Percy. “It is the country -that suits your hair and your eyes.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>At the sanatorium Hedvig had forgotten to be Spanish. -She felt terribly nervous and cast out into the unknown.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now we will choose towns for you, just as one chooses -frocks,” continued Percy. “We shall begin with Seville, -though I suspect that Toledo would be the most suitable.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>So they arrived at Seville.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I can’t offer you an auto-da-fé,” he whispered. “You -will have to be satisfied with a ‘corrida’.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Above the entrance to the <i>plaza de toros</i> there stood in -big letters “Press Bull-fight in commemoration of the immaculate -conception of the Virgin Mary.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With eyes that still smarted and burnt from all the pitiless -light on the yellow sand of the arena Hedvig saw -within a fraction of a second a little grey bull, with the -picador’s dart in his neck, bury his horns into the stomach -of the rearing horse. The horse beat the air helplessly -with his forefeet and lifted his slender neck and his head -with a gesture of wild, maddening pain, and then fell -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>heavily on one side with the picador beneath him, but only -to rush up again and to gallop, pursued by the bull, round -the arena with bleeding sides and trailing entrails.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig stared fixedly down. She was very pale.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This is horrible,” she muttered. “I want to go.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But she did not go.</p> - -<p class='c009'>More picadors, more bleeding horses. Then banderilleros -who, dancing nimbly, buried their flag-adorned darts -in the bleeding neck of the bull with subtle, playful cruelty. -Meanwhile the sunlight lay like fire on the yellow sand, -the red blood stains, and the bright shawls of the women -on the rails of the boxes. Even the rising metallic sound -of thousands of voices seemed to be burnt through by the -heat of the sun.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the <i>espada</i> entered. With his knee breeches, slippers -and pouched hair he seemed to have stepped straight -out of a Mozart opera.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Swinging his red cloth he dances an elegant Death dance -before he draws his weapon. Now everything gleams -bright, the sun, eyes, the thin fire-shaft of the sword. His -posture, as with his weapon raised to the level of his eyes -he calmly awaits the onslaught of the bull, is extremely -graceful. Now the fire of the fine tongue of steel is suddenly -extinguished in the bull’s neck, the Colossus staggers -and falls heavily.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig sat mute and pale with devouring eyes. She -was staring at the gate from which the next bull would -rush in....</p> - -<p class='c009'>When they drove home in the first yellow twilight Percy’s -arm stole round her waist.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I believe all the same Toledo has amused itself in -Seville,” he smiled. “Wasn’t that a fine way of getting -the sanatorium out of the system?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig pushed away his arm almost unkindly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t laugh at everything,” she muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And suddenly she felt a secret bitterness that the man -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>by her side was not stronger, more robust, more dangerous, -that he had allowed her to say “no” so often.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Darkness requires more heat than light. The sun, the -sight of blood, the inborn cruelty of the south had all at -once burnt through her shyness, her fear and her brooding. -Hunger for life buried its claws deep in this strange virgin -soul that had lain so anxious and so self-absorbed. She -was not the first barbarian from a twilight-land to whom -the south has given a bold desire to live.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That night Sister Hedvig became her husband’s lover.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They remained the whole autumn in Seville and saw -many bull fights. Hedvig was very beautiful at this time. -Hers was a dark passionate unfolding. Percy overwhelmed -her with costly clothes and jewels. He dressed her up as -a Spaniard with combs and shawls and mantillas. He -did not touch his paint brush, but he let her pose to his -love. And Hedvig enjoyed his admiration, enjoyed her -own beauty. For the first time in her life she was at -peace with her own body. It was no longer the cause of -restlessness and heavy care and danger. It took pride in -this man’s caresses. Beneath her silk and her jewels she -felt the glow of her nakedness. A solemn thrill would pass -through her at the thought of her own shoulders and breast. -And she enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction, which was both -hot and cold. Oh, what a relief not to feel any longer that -anxious longing in her inmost soul.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig Hill was happily in love with herself. For Percy -also these were happy days. Their late union gave his mind -a bright coolness. Perhaps he sometimes suspected the -gulf which nevertheless existed between them. But that -did not frighten a dilettante, it only now and then liberated -a certain light self-irony. He enjoyed his own extravagant -gifts, he enjoyed seeing her bloom in her own way under -his hands. He felt something of the cool intoxication of the -artist before his work when it has achieved independent life.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>“You are my most beautiful picture,” he would whisper. -“I sometimes imagine I have done it myself.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The time was far away when he had lain in the shadow of -Death looking at her with a beggar’s eyes. Percy Hill forgot -things easily.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was the evening of a clear and brilliant October day. -The whitewashed walls no longer dazzled. Down in the -patio of the small hotel two Spanish matrons in black were -sitting talking with phlegmatic fire. Their talk flowed as -musically and as monotonously as the little spraying -fountain in the marble basin. Hedvig and Percy had just -returned from a long drive towards the <i>vega</i>. The coolness -of the approaching autumn suited him wonderfully well. -He stood leaning against the window frame with his hands -behind his head:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Today I feel quite aggressively alive,” he said. “Fancy -if we should have a child, Hedvig. A little girl. I would -much rather have a girl than a boy.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a slight touch of annoyance in his voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig sat at her dressing table doing her hair. She -felt a sudden unpleasant shock. Strange as it may sound, -she had up till that moment not thought of the consequences -of their life together, and not for a moment had she -thought of herself as a mother. She let slip the knot and -her black hair flowed again over her naked white shoulders. -She sprang up from the dressing table with a hard expression -and frightened eyes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I don’t want a child!” she cried. “Never, never!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy wondered at her vehemence. His smile grew -hesitating:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Dear child, forget my nonsense. It is bad taste to -foretell nature in that way. I only meant that I should -certainly find your condition beautiful.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had now calmed down again. She came up to him -and stroked his hair:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>“You must never talk like that, Percy,” she muttered. -“You ... we have no right to children ... they are for -those who are healthy...”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And her face had suddenly resumed the old expression -of sisterly resignation and self-sacrifice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy grew a shade paler. It seemed as if the climate -had suddenly grown more chilly. It seemed as if the light -reflected by the white walls had been reflected by snow. -The sanatorium had followed even to Seville.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Forgive me, I forgot for a moment that I was an invalid,” -he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>From that day Hedvig suffered constant anxiety lest she -should have a child.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Woman’s egoism is more negative than that of a man—it -is a real minus quantity. For she reveals her sacrifice and -her devotion in the very lines of her body. Her whole -body is a manifestation of generosity, a splendid promise. -From the day that her breasts fill out, invisible childish -lips grope round them. Within the sweet swelling lines of -her body and lips slumber the forces of regeneration. Her -egoism is a barrenness, a cowardly self-betrayal, for she -betrays her own body and she betrays the future...</p> - -<p class='c009'>Of course Hedvig was convinced she had the noblest motives. -Of course it was the curse of heredity that frightened -her. She did not admit even to herself that she would have -been still more frightened had he been a healthy man, that -it was her own body she was beginning to fear again and -this time not with a vague and indefinite fear as before. No, -now she knew what was at stake. At any moment there -might begin to grow within her a strange being that would -feed on her blood, would tear her body, would perhaps -bring death to her. She grew cold with fear at the least -disquieting sign. She had moments of hatred of her husband. -And she began to behave with a meanness and nervous -caution that deprived their life of all its charm.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>Percy yielded. Probably it was criminal of him to hope -for children.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He did not see through his wife, or at least only half saw -through her. There were perhaps dark moments when he -suspected the cowardly poverty of her character, but people -of his type do not pursue disagreeable thoughts to the end. -All the same Percy relapsed into a restless state. He -felt as if he had been exiled from the kingdom of peace -and health of which he had only had a glimpse. He left -Seville and began to lead a roving life in Spain and the -south of France. Galleries, ruins, mountains, waterfalls. -It was the same old hunt for beauty! Several times he -tried to stay in one place and take up his paint brush again. -But these were only good intentions, interrupted by crises -of discouragement. Towards Spring they reached Paris, -for which he had all the time been longing. Percy settled -in Montparnasse amongst the Scandinavian painters and -talked art with feverish and excited interest. Here he suddenly -fell victim to the modern extremists, to futurism, -cubism, naïvism and ultra-expressionism, on which he had -formerly only bestowed an ironic curiosity. It seemed as -if his very refinement and submissiveness had rendered him -defenceless against the latest brutalities. He began to buy -the crudest objects. The strangest things were sent to their -studio on the Boulevard Raspail. There was a “Portrait of -a Lady,” consisting of four straight, black-green lines on a -pink ground. There was a picture called “Motion” which -consisted of four triangular fields containing parts of a -woman’s leg and a locomotive.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy looked stealthily at Hedvig when with eager -explanations and cold enthusiasm he showed her these -acquisitions. “I am not happy,” his look said. “This kind -of art is not for happy people. It is for those who have -something to avenge.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>They were, as a matter of fact, so many reproaches flung -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>in the face of life because he was weak, enervated, sorely -tried and without a future.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had suffered all the time from his new associates, -among whom she felt helpless and embarrassed. She was -jealous of all the strange, poisonous indecency that they -called modern art. She stared silently at the new monstrosities. -Very well—he prefers all this to me, she thought. -It did not merely hurt her. She had also a strange, suppressed -feeling, never admitted, but nevertheless real, of -becoming free, of slipping out of his hands; a throbbing, -secret, insolent feeling that anything was possible. But -with all this there immediately blended an anxious care, an -old frightened care as old as the Selambshof days, which -stirred within her every time he gave her expensive flowers, -bought first-class tickets or threw a big silver coin to a beggar.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What have you given for those pictures?” she asked -defiantly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He mentioned a large sum, several thousand francs. -And she went into her own room with a pale face.</p> - -<p class='c009'>From this time Hedvig began to insist on their going -home.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Percy continued to buy modern art. Everything was -not so provocative as those first pictures. There were also -pearls of bold but still exquisitely tasteful expressionism. -After running about all the day at exhibitions and art dealers -he sat down to drink his apéritif. He looked out over -the murmuring streams of humanity on the big boulevards, -which always make you feel that you are a poor little drop -in the ocean and may be washed away at any moment. But -all the same there came into his eyes a little look of anger. -And he did not turn to Hedvig, who sat there dressed in -black looking stiff and disapproving, but to the young painters -round the table. It was strange how the air of Paris -made him free and independent:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It’s a pity it’s so damned banal to make a donation,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>he exclaimed. “But a poor wretch like me has no other -way out. I have no children. I won’t live very much -longer. I am an end and not a beginning like you boys. -My money has no personal future. But if I add a wing to -my little art gallery and fill it with first-class explosive -matter and then present the whole splendour to the nation -or rather to the city, yes, to Stockholm, then I shall at any -rate have sown the seeds of a little healthy restlessness in -their minds. And a little help to you fellows. And I -shall have erected a little monument to myself in the usual -dishonest but generally approved way. The Hill Collection! -What do you think of that idea?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>They grew excited round the table:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We must thank you, of course! But why don’t you do -something yourself? You can, Percy! You are no -bourgeois! Why don’t you stick it out?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had been sitting all the time silent and forbidding. -At Percy’s unexpected mention of an endowment she -suddenly felt a cold shiver of anger. She rose quickly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You all seem to forget that Percy is ill,” she said. “He -must not be rushed. He is much too excited here in Paris. -Shan’t we go back home now, Percy?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The young painters felt a little nervous of Mrs. Hill, -of her aristocratic air, her dark nun-like beauty. Silence -fell around the table. Percy rose with his little, absent-minded, -apologetic smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, there you see, gentlemen,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then they left.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last Hedvig succeeded in making her husband leave -Paris, where it was already beginning to be hot and dusty. -There is always an element of danger in the journey home -for consumptives who have been living in the south. In -Stockholm there had been an unfortunate relapse in the late -spring, with storm and icy rain. Percy had to go to bed at -once and Hedvig was again his nurse. He did not want -the doctor. He had a real horror of doctors and Hedvig -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>did not insist on calling one in. She took great care that -he should not be exposed to tiring visits of old artist friends -and she nursed him with quite, inexhaustible energy. There -was no more talk of the great donation and Hedvig began -to feel a certain deep calm.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But one fine day Percy got up in spite of all her protest -and in spite of his not having quite a normal temperature. -And the following morning an architect arrived. The two -men walked round the house, drew, measured and made a -lot of calculations.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I want the drawings as quickly as possible,” Percy said -at lunch. “I am in a great hurry.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>His eyes glowed and he had little red patches in his -cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The architect promised to do his best.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Immediately afterwards the pictures began to arrive from -Paris. Not only those that Hedvig had already seen, but -a whole lot of new ones. Percy evidently had somebody -down there buying for his account.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig said nothing. She kept to herself, locked herself -in, brooded and scarcely answered when spoken to.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Still more new pictures arrived, and Percy was busy -with them the whole day, studying them, and moving them -from one crowded room to another.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the plans were ready and the workmen arrived, a -whole swarm of them. They dug and blasted, laid foundations -and built the walls. Percy sat in an easy chair out -in the sunshine and looked on. He was so eager that he -scarcely allowed himself time to eat. “This is my protest -against oblivion,” he thought. “I am building a house for -my ashes. I am building my own little pyramid....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He really imagined his ashes standing in a beautiful -Japanese urn in a corner of the Hill gallery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Towards autumn the roof was already on the new wing. -Percy began to hang the pictures at once. He could not -even wait till the walls had dried. He himself was not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>strong enough to move anything, but he sat in his chair and -gave orders to Ohlesson, the coachman, who had now become -a chauffeur. You could see even from Ohlesson’s -back how he disapproved of these awful novelties. Percy -did not worry. Whenever he looked in at the rooms containing -examples of the older art, everything there seemed to -him strangely quiet and as it were covered over with a fine -dust. His taste was already brutalised by these strident -colours and paradoxical forms. He really needed strong -food now, poor Percy. Fatigue sometimes descended like -a grey mist over his feverish zeal. He used these new -excesses as weapons against the deepening shadows.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig walked about devoured by a silent consuming -bitterness. Her feelings were a strange compound of jealousy -of his overpowering interest in art and brooding -anxiety at his wicked extravagance. This donation seemed -to her like a challenge, like a theft from one who had sacrificed -herself for him. Percy had allowed himself to be -seduced, she thought. He has no power of resistance. But -she dared not speak openly to him. She had a vague feeling -that there was something within her that she must not -betray. That is why she never went beyond her increasingly -bitter reproaches that he overtired himself, and neglected -himself. She wore an expression as if the crêpe were already -floating round her. Yes, Percy thought sometimes -that she assumed her widowhood in advance. There was -something sharp and nervous in his answer:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why do you insist on wearing black?” he said. “I -should understand you much better in sealing wax red or -sulphur green.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Her old method of holding him was no longer effective. -Hedvig again began to feel his lack of respect for illness -as a personal insult. By and by they almost quarrelled -about Ohlesson, the chauffeur. Hedvig began to drive into -town every day in the car. Then Percy would have no one -to help him, she thought. Then he would be forced to rest. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>This made her a little easier. One day she did something -she had been tempted to do for a long time. She ordered -Ohlesson to drive to Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The avenue was full of yellow leaves. Several of the old -trees had blown down and there were ugly gaps as in a -broken set of teeth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter sat in the office puffing at an unlit cigar and looking -at his papers. He had aged. He was bent, his face -was flabby and yellow. Hedvig stood before him as Laura -had done once upon a time. She could not help having -been spoilt by so many beautiful and expensive things. For -a moment she shivered at the ugliness of her brother. But -in her inmost heart she tolerated him, had even a feeling of -security in the presence of something intimate and familiar.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning, Peter!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning, Hedvig. So the elegant Mrs. Hill visits -this remote spot. Why this honour?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig did not answer but looked out through the window -with an expression of resignation.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter wore a look of injured innocence which suited him -perfectly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Is it perhaps for the last dividends? Because Levy has -long ago cashed them.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had, on Laura’s recommendation, appointed the -lawyer Levy to look after her personal estate, including her -shares in Selambshof. And Peter did not at all like the -insolent supervision of the Jew.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig shook her head.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am anxious about Percy,” she mumbled. It sounded -as if this confession had been forced out of her by a thumbscrew.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Really, how—how is your lord and master, anyhow?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>On Peter’s face there appeared a well-meaning grin of -sympathy. He summoned up all that was left of his former -sentimentality, but it did not reach beyond his expression. -His eyes penetrated swiftly into her very soul with a cold, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>familiar, insolently searching glance. “Aha, my dear,” -they seemed to say, “this business did not turn out so well -as you thought.” Hedvig, of course, stood in silent, dignified -protest against his every low thought. But all the -same she enjoyed his glance—something that groped -blindly and stealthily in her vitals.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Percy is very bad,” she exclaimed in a kind of -exaltation, “much worse than he thinks himself. And he -has quite lost his balance. He does nothing but buy picture -after picture, mad things that unscrupulous people palm off -on him. He is positively throwing away all he has! It is -such a dreadful shame!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was playing with his pencil. He had never heard -Hedvig say so much at once before.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You mean that Percy ought to be under restraint,” he -interrupted calmly. “I am afraid that would be rather -difficult.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I shall have remorse all my life if I do nothing to help -and protect him.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter wanted to damp what he thought was unbusiness-like -vehemence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Pictures, you said ... but pictures can be good, -almost as good as shares. They give no dividend but they -can rise a damned lot in value.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, not the pictures that Percy buys. He is being -robbed by real swindlers. And then he wants to give it all -away to the State. But they will never accept such rubbish. -People will only laugh at us.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was startled. A donation! This was damned -serious. He rose panting, walked up to Hedvig and poked -his thumb into her arm:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You ... you ought to occupy Percy’s time a little -more,” he leered. “So that he won’t have any left for this -nonsense. Why the devil are you so black and white and -beautiful as sin?... And have expensive pretty frocks -and all that sort of thing.... The chief thing is that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>Percy does not commit any folly while he is still ... -well, I mean that one can always protest against a -will....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a certain satisfaction in Peter’s grunts. He -enjoyed saying this kind of thing to an elegant lady in -diamond rings and black silk. There was a sort of -luxurious revenge at last in being able to speak straight out -to Hedvig, the hypocritical Hedvig.</p> - -<p class='c009'>His sister did not push him away. She smelled his -breath, and the smell of stale tobacco and of cheese on his -old clothes. All the time she had the same feeling in the -pit of her stomach as one has when one sinks rapidly in a -lift. Now she had reached the bottom. She did not push -him away. She stood there with closed eyes without a -trace of colour in her face. She felt his shamelessness -groping with coarse, hairy hands about her reserve, her -shyness, and her stealthy and lying fear.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How dare you!” she whispered in a low, hoarse voice, -“how dare you say anything so vile?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But his words stuck all the same. They crawled about, -teemed and multiplied within her. They stimulated her to -action and emboldened her gloomy heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig staggered out of Peter’s hovel. She stood beneath -the naked, shivering maples on the soil of her bitter youth -and of her long humiliation. A dull consuming autumn -restlessness ran through her blood. The darkness of the -main building attracted her suddenly as by some secret -hardening of her heart. The door stood ajar above the -bank of withering leaves on the steps. She entered. Everything -was dim, dusty, cold, stuffy. She wandered about the -empty echoing corridors, turned the creaking locks, stole -through swarms of moths between the covered mirrors and -chairs and the windows which were specked with innumerable -dead flies. In her own room she sank with a -groan on to the edge of the old narrow bed of her girlhood. -Memories of her poor, lonely, miserable childhood rushed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>over her with renewed strength. She felt a wild self pity, a -kind of fury clawing her breast. But she liked to feel -that claw. That was why she was here. She drained the -cup of pain to the last drop with voluptuous bitterness. It -gave her a right to revenge.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When, as if under the pressure of a dangerous burden, -Hedvig slowly staggered out again it was only to pursue -the past still further. She strolled through the neglected, -overgrown garden where the benches and the paths were -covered with dead stalks and the trees were already robbed -of their fruit. Here in the old pear tree beside the well -there was a big hole in which she used to hide her secrets—as -a dog hides a bone. There had lain for a long time a -broken seal out of the smoking room and a little ring with -a green heart that she had taken from Laura. In her -thoughts she still obstinately defended this theft: “Had -not Laura broken her fine comb? And not given her anything -in place of it!” How quiet and self-possessed she -had been as she sat there and Laura searched for the ring, -cried and stamped....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig cast a shy and searching glance around her. -Then she quickly pulled off her glove and pushed her hand -down into the hole. Her arm had grown plumper and it -was a little difficult to reach the bottom. With the tips of -her fingers she felt something hard and managed to pull it -up. It was a little bottle with a death’s head and cross -bones on it. There was still something thick and brown -at the bottom. It was a souvenir of her confirmation. She -had taken the bottle from the family medicine chest after -that affair with Brundin. In the darkness she often ran -down to feel it. It was death she fingered ... death ...</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig stared at the sluggish brown drops. “It was that -struggle that made a nurse of me,” she thought with sudden -clear vision. “I had to finger—death. I was a fool.” -And seized by a wild mortification she flung the bottle on -the ground so that it was shattered into a thousand pieces.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>Now Hedvig stepped through a broken-down hanging -gate into a road, from the rustling, leafy carpet of which -there was reflected a strange, sulphur yellow light which -seemed like the very shimmer of putrefaction. Not a -human soul was visible. It seemed as if Peter had devoured -the whole population. Next she stood on the cliff by The -Rookery where she used to spy on Laura’s and Herman’s -kisses. Oh, she could still feel her burning mortification -and her envy of her sister. Overhead the autumn breeze -soughed heavily in the dark pine tops. Out on the lake -sudden black gusts perturbed the surface as if in irresolute -fury. But the waves beat against the shiny green stones -on the shore with short, sharp onslaughts, already troubled -by the thought of the moment when everything would be -frozen up. Hedvig suddenly lifted her hands as if to ward -off a blow. The thought that Percy would soon die, that -she would soon be alone again, rushed over her with a -vehemence as never before. Alas! to know a thing is one -thing; to feel it in your heart and bones is another thing. -She felt a shivering fear of the old loneliness of Selambshof. -The autumn day, the decay all round her, the icy cold -shadow of death, suddenly awakened all the hunger in her -blood. The memories from Seville rose up before her -flame-clear on this chilly northern autumn day. Once more -they swept away her cautious fears and her anxious reserve. -She had a savage pleasure in standing there in the cold wind -and letting loose all the black hot gusts....</p> - -<p class='c009'>And deep, deep down in her soul there was during all -this seething turmoil the consciousness that Peter had given -his approval, that she had the sanction of the Selamb family -spirit for whatever might happen. Without that she might -never, never have undertaken this stimulating and fateful -excursion into the past....</p> - -<p class='c009'>They had late dinner at the Hills’. Hedvig came down -in her black Spanish dress, with her hair parted in the -middle and a high comb under the mantilla. She was as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>stiff as an image of a saint. But she had a burning pallor, -and there was fire in her alluring black eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The saint drank several glasses of wine.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy sat mute. He did not take his eyes off her and -trembled as if before some overpowering phenomenon of -nature. We are to begin again, he thought. It was not -dead. From the first moment he saw her there was no -thought of resistance in his mind.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When they were sitting over coffee in the yellow twilight -of the intimate little anteroom she suddenly threw her arms -round his neck and kissed him. He no longer wondered -how it had happened, or why it had happened just then. -He only revelled in his intoxication of joy, at once awful -and glorious. He had a strange feeling of starting on a -journey from which he would never return.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During a long, silent, dark autumn night she drank his -fever like a fiery wine. She was the intoxicated nun -officiating at the dark mass of love. Never had Percy -found her lips so greedy, so glorious and unashamed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the morning Hedvig played with Percy, as the cat -plays with the mouse. She stood there wonderfully naked -in the pale sunlight from the window. Never before had -she been able to show herself to him thus. There was in -the very lines of her body something wild and virginal, -a shyness which made the sight of her nakedness a sort of -breathless sacrilege. Percy had the sensation of beholding -a martyred girl who, with her clothes torn from her body, -awaits the fierce and hungry beasts on the yellow sands -of the arena.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Today I need some air,” she said, “but I don’t mind -walking if you want the chauffeur!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“May I not come with you?” whispered Percy from his -pillows. He looked so small in the big carved bed -resembling a catafalque. “Could we not take a long run -into the country to look at the autumn.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That day Percy no longer spoke of his pictures, nor -<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>during the following days either. Hedvig did not see him -even glance at the new gallery. He seemed to have grown -afraid of his plans for farewell, his pyramid, the urn for -his ashes and all the rest of it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>All Percy’s feelings had been transfused into a new, -passionate love. Day and night he wanted to be with -Hedvig. Protected by her white limbs he huddled together -in the growing shadows and intoxicated himself in the -warmth of her presence. But it was a fatal intoxication. -Love made everything, even death, greater, more real, more -terrible—. It seemed as if strong hands had torn to pieces -the bright artistically woven veil that dilettantism had suspended -between him and reality. He felt for perhaps the -first time in his life a deep fear. But then he only drank the -deeper from Hedvig’s unbroken life as if by doing so he -might save his own. And when he noticed that the intoxication -consumed his strength instead of increasing it then -he drank deeper still in order to benumb himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But now it was Hedvig’s turn to steal into Percy’s picture -galleries. Yes, the rôles were strangely reversed. She -positively felt attracted to her former chamber of horror. -She would stay there for a long time staring around her. -It was not that any artistic instincts had awakened in her. -It was not that she had begun to understand any of these -new paradoxes. No, but she imbibed courage from their -impudent recklessness. She deafened her conscience with -their excesses. “Everything is permitted,” that was what -Percy’s pictures whispered into the ear of a Selamb.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Life and death soar strangely near each other in love. -You give and take with the same recklessness. Sacrifice -and selfishness disport themselves side by side. And just -at the moment when the human egoism is nearest to its -dissolution it is sometimes most blindly cruel.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During these weeks Hedvig loved Percy and killed him. -There came a moment when she began to be afraid to look -into his face. But all the same she could not find the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>strength to spare him. During the day she invented many -a cunning trick to escape seeing the truth. There was -something round his mouth and eyes which now and then -filled her with a cold terror, almost with hatred. It was the -disease in him she hated. She would feel fits of cruel -invincible hunger for the moment when death would at -last strike its blow and no longer creep stealthily around -them. And all the same she loved him, loved for the first -time in her life with a kind of dim, wild abandon. So -strange is the human heart. In the midst of these fits she -longed for the night, the darkness, the great, teeming, blind -darkness when she could once more draw him to her, kiss -him, drink up his fever.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sometimes Hedvig was seized by a kind of dark frenzy. -Their love had resembled a silent bitter struggle with death. -Percy sank back with perspiring temples. Convulsively, -like, a drowning man, he would seize her black hair and -stare into her eyes, which he saw in spite of the darkness -and which seemed to him surrounded by pale little dancing -flames:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My beautiful angel of death,” he whispered. “My -beautiful angel of death.” And in his voice was a strange -mixture of love, hopelessness and, to the very last, playful -irony.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One such night there came a fresh hæmorrhage of the -lungs. It was the third, and Percy knew at once that it was -the last. For several days he lay there white and thin and -faded away without any serious pain. The winter had come -early. The light from the snow on the pines lit up the -room just as in the sanatorium in Switzerland. The doctors -had that all-wise and important expression which -always means that they are completely powerless. Percy -had recovered his little, wan, ironical, submissive smile. He -did not complain and did not seem to regret anything. He -smiled also to his wife without wondering at her metamorphosis.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>Hedvig had turned nurse again. Silent, indefatigable, -with the expression of painfully heroic resignation of her -profession she moved silently about his bed. Not a word -did they speak of what had passed between them. They -were like people who have become sober and who scarcely -suspect what they have done during their intoxication.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Until one day Percy wanted to be carried out into the -new gallery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At first Hedvig objected vehemently. He was not to be -moved. He could not bear the least movement. Only -after persistent prayers did she give in to his whim, but -with an injured, worried expression. And she did not -leave him alone. Erect and rigid she stood on guard by -his pillow in the hall.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here the dying Percy lay amongst all his new art. A -look of bitterness and weariness fell across his face. He -shivered a little. The walls looked around him indescribably -cold and unsubstantial. They seemed to radiate cold -and meaninglessness. The stiffness and perverse spasms -of the latest fashion in art gave him a terrible feeling of a -blighted life frozen in death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“They can never have had a fire here,” he mumbled, and -crept right down under the bedclothes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig was already prepared to have him carried back -to the bedroom. But then Percy caught a glimpse through -his half-closed eyelids of a little spring landscape, a hill -with apple trees in bloom against white walls. In the -midst of all the frostiness he received a lovely impression -of a pure motive, of a simplicity that was full of meaning -and of quiet appealing beauty. And he remembered again -his promises in Paris. They again seemed to him important -and binding. He took the picture with him and had it -placed at the foot of the bed when he was carried back into -his “crypt,” as he called his bedroom alcove. Tomorrow, -he thought. Tomorrow I will send for a lawyer and will -arrange the matter.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>But the lawyer was not sent for. Percy had other things -to dream about. In the twilight Hedvig came and sat down -on the edge of his bed. She had been into town for a while, -for the first time for weeks. She looked as solemn as a -priestess. And after a moment’s silence she told him that -she expected a child.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy did not say much. He whispered thanks. Then -he kissed her hand and put it on his chest. And then he -lay there trying to imagine that new life that he would -never raise up in his arms. But it was difficult to feel -that it was true. He could scarcely imagine Hedvig as a -mother. He had remorse because he did not feel this more -deeply. He kissed her hand again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy lived one week longer. He had several troublesome -attacks of suffocation after which he was seized by -a death-like weakness. But as soon as he had a clear -moment Hedvig spoke to him of the child. It grew, it -developed, it lived in her consciousness. It was a boy and -he was called Percy. He was a little delicate, but handsome, -with dark hair like his mother’s, blue eyes like his -father’s. Hedvig was no longer so quiet. She spoke -quickly, nervously, in short breathless sentences. It seemed -as if she had tried to put her own fear to sleep. She made -a convulsive and touching effort to keep death away with -the last resources of her womanhood.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And still the whole thing was a lie.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One winter morning when the snow lay thick on the -ground Percy Hill died in his wife’s arms. Something -seemed to make him restless during his last moments. It -was not the child. No, he muttered something over and -over again about the lawyer ... the donation.... It -sounded almost as if he had wanted to force a promise from -Hedvig.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Truly pitiful was this hopeless appeal to her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Percy Hill died a dilettante. He had succeeded in completing -nothing in all his life. Not even a new will had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>he been able to draw up. There was only the one that he -had written the day they were married and in which he -left Hedvig everything.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And there was no child born to him after his death. -Hedvig had cheated him. It was a lie of love. Yes, no -doubt she believed that she lied to console him, to sweeten -his last moments and to make death easier. She was perhaps -quite unconscious of the terrible Selamb logic in the -fact that it was just on the very day that Percy began to be -interested in his donation again that her fiction about an -heir escaped her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Exhausted by vigils and anxiety Hedvig collapsed after -Percy’s death. For several days she lay unconscious. Not -one of those who arranged for the funeral knew any of -Percy’s old artist friends. So the strange thing happened -that he was driven out to Lidingö cemetery together with -Peter, Stellan and an old gouty sea-captain from Gothenburg, -whom he had never seen in his life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig mourned him sincerely. As soon as she could -stand up she hurried out to his grave. For months not a -day passed without her paying it a visit. A rigid figure -in black, she stood there under the snowcovered trees staring -at his grave. Did she ask his pardon for her lie, for not -laying his ashes in an urn in the Hill gallery? Did she -fall back upon memories of their love, sensuous memories? -Did she only try to fill an aching void with the foolish -illusion of physical proximity? I don’t know, but it is a -fact that the tears often came to her eyes. Hedvig cried, -the tearless Hedvig....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then she returned home to conferences with Levy, who -was making the inventory. Percy had an old-established, -solid fortune. He had only been obliged to sell an insignificant -part of it in order to realize his dreams of a gallery. -There was a cold, numb pleasure in hearing the clever Jew -descant on funds, interest, dividend warrants and investments. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>It seemed as if the very soul of gold had spoken -to her with glib tongue and beautiful though ironically -curled lips. After a time she began to understand with a -feeling of secret, refreshing joy how rich she really was.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span> - <h2 class='c005'>IV<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE COLD MOMENT</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>There was a charity fête at the Athletic Ground. The -quadrille on horseback and the bicycle race were over -and now people thronged round the tombola and the -stalls.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan did not look up at the sky when he stepped out -into the saddling yard. He did not give a thought to the -balloon whose gigantic yellow silk bubble was already -beginning to swell out and shimmer in the cool September -sunshine. No, his looks searched anxiously amongst the -scattered groups of spectators outside the ring of guard. -And he suddenly muttered a half-suppressed oath at the -sight of Peter who, furious and massive as a bull, bore -down on him from his ambush. He awaited the attack in -the most deserted spot he could find. And a certain -weariness appeared in the hard lines of his mouth:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You have become damned difficult to find,” panted -Peter. But Stellan was already prepared with a smile. It -is strange that smiles can thrive so many degrees below -freezing point.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You can meet me as much as you like when you have -got decent clothes—and a decent face....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was unshaven. His overcoat dated from the fat -and sentimental period. It now hung on him like a sack. -His barge-like shoes were covered with the dirt of the bad -roads of Selambshof and he had in his hand, not a stick -but a cudgel. And he shook the cudgel and struck the -ground with it:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are damned smart, you are! But if I take everything -<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>this fine gentleman possesses perhaps he won’t be -quite so smart. Tomorrow I want my seventy-five thousand, -or else I’ll make you bankrupt!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan still smiled. He pointed to the balloon and his -tone became exquisitely ironical:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Come up with me and then we can talk business.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter looked with a ludicrous expression of suspicion -and disapproval on the expensive and dangerous ascent -in which his seventy-five thousand would soar heavenwards:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If you were at least decently insured,” he sighed. Then -he suddenly grew furious again and shouted, so that he was -overheard by the people round about them:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I must have the money tomorrow. I won’t wait any -longer.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan grew pale and came close up to his brother. It -was as if he were abusing some obstinate labourer:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You lout! You want to get hold of my last share in -Selambshof! But I have already put them up another -spout. Curse you, there are better and bigger creditors -than you! Yes, I have nothing but debts, so my position -is really excellent. The only hope for the creditors is that -the bubble won’t burst. But do you think it will improve -matters for a shabby old moneylender to come and hang -on to my coat tails just as I am going up? No, get away -and keep quiet and I will show you something to make you -think.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan suddenly had an idea. He pushed aside the -astonished and hesitating Peter without further ceremony -and went straight towards the steps of the tennis pavilion.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There Miss Lähnfeldt was standing amidst a group of -uniforms and allowed Manne von Strelert to pay her his -court. Both had taken part in the quadrille on horseback -and she was dressed in riding breeches, which at that time -was something quite new and bold, and she stood there -amongst all the men, slim and slight, but with her head held -high and with a proud carriage.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>Stellan ploughed his way through the group. Not a feature -betrayed what kind of conversation he had just passed -through. The lines round his mouth were gay and slightly -cruel. He saluted, kissed her hand, and said aloud, so -that everybody round them should hear:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Miss Lähnfeldt, do you remember I promised you a -sensation? Come up with me today.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Miss Lähnfeldt wanted to appear a sportwoman. She -cultivated to the best of her ability the Anglo-Saxon style. -Thanks to persistent and expensive training she had really -developed her little strength until she was considered a -bold rider and a fairly good tennis player. She did not -answer Stellan at once, but bit her lip and cast a glance at -the officers round her. But Manne protested. One had no -right to tempt charming ladies into the clouds, he thought. -Charming ladies might get dizzy....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan looked gratefully at Manne, certain that his words -would only egg her on. She was not a coward, or at least -she was more vain than she was afraid. And a crowd is a -bellows to vanity. Elvira Lähnfeldt was one of those -women who are excited by a crowd. The thought of some -kind of notoriety always occupied her thoughts. In every -crowd the desire to be noticed, spoken of, praised and envied, -worked like a stinging poison in her veins. When she -now looked at the group around her it was in order to -measure the effect of the proposal! It would surely create -a sensation if she went up, a real sensation....</p> - -<p class='c009'>She did not say “yes” straight out. She answered by the -eternal feminine question:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But what shall I put on?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My military fur coat,” said Stellan. “Besides, your -riding costume is most suitable. But come along, it is -twelve o’clock and the people are waiting.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She took his arm and they stepped out into the open -space. The group behind them applauded. Manne was -teased at the cavalry being outdistanced by the air force. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>There were several people there who were interested in -seeing the two friends’ position improved. The balloon -was already filled. Stellan turned away a poor journalist -who had had half a promise to be allowed to go up with -him, and amidst a murmur of surprise from the crowd he -lifted Miss Lähnfeldt very chivalrously over the edge of the -gondola. But he did not give the order to let go at once. -He did not grudge his partner a few moments of exquisite -joy in the polite and encouraging exclamations of the gentlemen -and the little cries of alarm from her lady friends.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the attendants let go the ropes and the balloon rose. -There was a flutter of white handkerchiefs from the dark -group below in the grey oval of the cycle course.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As you know, one need not rise very high before everything -down below looks small.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What mites,” said Miss Lähnfeldt. And her voice -sounded a little malicious.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan cast a side-glance at her in order to gauge the -effect of the increasing depth beneath them. She looked -down with an expression which seemed to say; “This is -nothing much.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Wait a bit, my dear,” thought Stellan. “You will get -as much as you can stand.” He had already made up his -mind that this would not be a pleasure trip, but an adventure.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The wind was west south-west. The balloon had not had -time to rise much before they were out over Lidingön. -Below him Stellan saw the shining green roof of the Hills’ -villa.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig ... yes, he would have to try there too if -everything else went wrong. If only Percy had been alive.... -But Hedvig alone, no, there wasn’t much -chance....</p> - -<p class='c009'>The balloon began to sink very suddenly. One must -always be careful when passing over forests, where the air -is warmer and lighter. But Stellan purposely neglected -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>to cast out any ballast till they almost swept over the tops -of the trees. That was a trick that used to impress beginners. -Stellan looked again at his partner. She was perhaps -a little paler than before and held on a little more tightly -to the edge of the gondola. But if he had hoped for any -frightened screams and looks of anxious appeal he was -doomed to disappointment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The balloon must manœuvre badly,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan flung out ballast, perhaps more than was necessary -and they rose quickly into silent and radiant space -over the bright and dazzling autumn coast landscape. It -was really wonderfully beautiful with the spray of gold -that the leafy trees made amongst the dark pines and the -deep solemn September blue of the water in the bays—which -to the far-penetrating gaze of those above shivered -in iridescence of algæ-green, seaweed-brown and shimmering -gneiss-red nearer inshore in the shallower water. In -a narrow smooth belt of calm water a toy steamer drew -behind it a silver shimmering fan of dwarf-like waves. -And far away in the east along the strangely banked up -horizon the sea stretched like a low endless blue ridge.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But most wonderful of all was the silence and the stillness, -the incomparable, mighty calm in a balloon that -moved with the wind and in which a candle flame would -burn as steadily as in a closed room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Strange ... it is like sitting in a glass cupboard,” -said Miss Lähnfeldt in a low voice and there was after all -involuntary admiration in her voice. But then she added: -“Though I must say I thought it would be more exciting....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan bit his lip: he was not in the mood for enjoying -anything beautiful just now. He felt like a stage manager -who is responsible for effect before a critical and spoilt -public. He thought of Peter, his affairs, marriage—without -any enthusiasm for the last.... He felt almost hostile -to the woman by his side. Her affected indifference -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>irritated him. He could not manage to pay her any sort -of attention. He felt like a partner who dances out of -time and has nothing to whisper into his partner’s ear. -Annoyed, he tapped the barometer. It sank, though the -balloon was sinking slowly. It was already three o’clock -in the afternoon. The sun suddenly disappeared. Behind -them in the west the sky was clouded. The air began to -grow a cold, whitish grey, and clouded over, they no -longer saw the earth below them. In an incredibly short -time they had become enveloped in a dense cloud.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan did not descend, as was his duty with an -approaching storm when he was so near the sea. He was -a desperado. Miss Lähnfeldt was going to have an experience, -that was all. He threw out several sacks of ballast, -which disappeared in long brown streaks in the fog below -them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>His manœuvring was not quite planless. He had observed -that the wind in the upper strata was several degrees -more southerly and he began to think of the Åland islands.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now they were suddenly out in the sunshine again, in -the cold dazzling sunlight over an enormous shimmering -sea of cloud. They soared alone in a dazzling white, ever -changing, chaos of snow mountains and lakes of fog—millions -of years before human life existed....</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have seen this before in Switzerland,” said Miss Lähnfeldt -shivering with cold.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The balloon had risen rapidly and lost much gas. It -soon began to sink again through the cloud world, which -now grew grey. When it cleared up below them they were -already out over a nasty grey, white-crested sea. A very -strong wind was blowing.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the first feminine exclamation escaped from Miss -Lähnfeldt:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But, good heavens, how shall we get back?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan bowed for the first time with a polite and amiable -smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>“By steamer,” he said. “We will sleep at Mariehamn -tonight.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>As a matter of fact he was not so sure of it. The wind -higher up had evidently been a few degrees more in the -west than he had counted on. In its present quarter they -would pass south of Åland. But the storm lower down -might draw them south ... otherwise ... well what -otherwise? Well, otherwise they would go to hell....</p> - -<p class='c009'>What does a man like Captain Stellan Selamb feel when -he mutters to himself that he might “go to hell”? Nothing -really. He has never properly conceived death. His egoism -is so hard and polished that the thought of death slips -off everywhere.</p> - -<p class='c009'>If you want an opinion of a man, try to find out his views -of death. Death comes <i>in</i> life and not <i>after</i> life. And it -is what happens in life that makes us really alive. What -else are we but our conception of, our defiance of, our -struggle against, and our victory over, death? Yes, because -there is a real, a living courage which conquers -death....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had the gambler’s courage. It is always better -than cowardice. But it is really very superficial. A hard -frozen surface with no resilience beneath. Clear but shallow -thoughts that have never penetrated to the depths of -life. An inner reflection of a blind, pitiless Fate.... -How much of the courage that meets us in the wild and -bloody history of the world is not of this kind? The great -gamblers! Minds and souls are only cards to them, playing -cards or trumps in the wild gamble of politics and war. -They only know themselves even as trumps in the game. -Even their own terrible egoism is really only a mirage. -For death has not made them alive....</p> - -<p class='c009'>The balloon drove eastwards with the gale. Stellan -sailed low and saved his ballast. In the north they could -see Åland and Lernland and Lumparland. The waves -washed heavily in the apparent stillness around them. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>They were sinking lower and lower. The last sack of ballast -went over. The balloon began to shrink round the -valve. There must be a leakage. Now a giant roaring -wave attempted to grab the gondola.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had to throw out everything loose, the ballast -sacks themselves, ropes, fur coats, stethoscopes and barometer. -He used the momentary respite to assist Miss Lähnfeldt -up into the rigging where she sat as on a trapeze -and held on to the cordage. She was very pale and looked -as if she might faint any moment, so he thought it best -to make her fast.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This is abominable,” she mumbled, as if she had been -exposed to some clumsiness on the part of a vulgar partner. -But she did not whimper.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They swept in over the breakers and rocks of the wild -and deserted skerries of Kökars. The gondola was already -trailing in the water, and the balloon began to swing and -jerk to and fro. Stellan also climbed up into the rigging. -He took the anchor with him. With violent jerks they -trailed over a stony rocky island on the skerries. Then -again they were carried over an empty roaring bay. But -now the wind had really turned into the south and there -was some wooded country ahead of them. Stellan cut -away the gondola, as it made the balloon dip. Then it -rose for the last time. They sat as in a swing over the -surging water. Phew! now they were rushing in towards -the land. A jetty and a few red-painted outhouses were -visible in the grey twilight. Stellan dropped anchor in -a damp marshy meadow so that the balloon might trail a -little and reduce speed. It caught in an alder with a terrible -jerk. Quick as lightning he tore open one of the -gores—and the balloon partly fell and was partly flung -down into a copse of young birches.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan freed himself at once. He hastened to drag out -his fellow passenger from below the torn, flapping and -billowing balloon cloth. She had fainted....</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>Some people came running up and he made them carry -her in. They had had the luck to land just beside a country -house. Then he rushed to the telephone and arranged -for telegrams....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Miss Lähnfeldt lay ill for a few days, till Stellan one -day stepped in to her with a bundle of Swedish newspapers -full of highly coloured descriptions of the unique and -adventurous balloon flight of the well-known tennis player -and rider, Miss Lähnfeldt.</p> - -<p class='c009'>For the first time she looked at Stellan with gratitude -and approval.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was invited to the autumn shoot at Trefvinge. -He gave a low whistle when he saw the name of Miss -Lähnfeldt and not her father on the invitation card. He -understood that the invitation was from her and not from -her father.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But he also whistled, though in another key, when he -heard from the coachman that Captain von Strelert had -already arrived. For it was equally evident that Manne, -Baron Manne von Strelert was the guest of the Count.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Count Lähnfeldt had, as a matter of fact, been extremely -angry over his daughter’s rash action. Busybodies, of -course, telephoned at once to Trefvinge to tell him that -his daughter had gone up in a balloon with Captain Selamb. -In a balloon! It seemed almost indecent to him. He -could not remember any really aristocratic ladies who -had gone up in a balloon. And with that Captain Selamb -into the bargain! From Selambshof ... brother of Peter -Selamb...!</p> - -<p class='c009'>When, later in the day, there came a telephone message -from Furusund that the balloon had been driven out to -sea in the gale, then he regarded the information as a confirmation -of his view that Captain Selamb was not the sort -of gentleman that the daughter of Count Lähnfeldt should -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>go up in the air with. He was so extremely vexed that -he scarcely felt any anxiety for the life of his only child.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Towards evening he calmed down a little when he -received a wire that they had landed at a quite respectable -Finnish-Swedish country house. And when the following -day he read in the papers of the brave and sporting action -of a lady moving in the highest circles, and of the courage -and the self-control of Miss Lähnfeldt, daughter of -the well-known Count Lähnfeldt of the magnificent seat -at Trefvinge, well, then he thought at last that perhaps -his daughter’s eccentricity had something aristocratic in -it after all.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But from that admission to the approval of Captain -Selamb as in any sort of capacity suitable company for -his daughter was a long step,—So far Stellan had not -yet come, in spite of his well arranged stage management -and press advertisement. It was therefore with measured -dignity and a rather chilly expression that the Lord of -Trefvinge received him. And this occurred in the largest -and most splendid room of the castle, the great tapestry -hall, which might well have subdued even the boldest.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning, Captain Selamb! My daughter is just -dressing for a ride with Baron von Strelert.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, I heard that Manne had promised to come for -a few days,” answered Stellan in a light, almost insolent, -tone. He read the master of the house quite clearly, so -clearly indeed that he sometimes was afraid of not being -able to keep a straight face.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Count Lähnfeldt was a very short man, in spite of the -high heels and extra soles on his shoes. He had an extremely -neat face. His words and his gestures were dignified, -slow, and heraldically stiff. But his eyes showed -a continual nervousness, the nervousness of the actor: -“Do I make an impression—do you believe in me?” they -seemed to say.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Alas, nobody believed at all in him. People made most -<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>impudent fun of him behind his back. He was generally -called Count <i>Loanfeldt</i>, and the reason was known to everybody.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The owner of Trefvinge was the son of an unmarried -actress, but whilst still very young he married the extremely -wealthy widow of a brewer, who died when his only -daughter was born. The title of Count was Portuguese. -He had received it from King Charles, of the house of -Bragança, after having on a certain delicate occasion lent -him a hundred thousand crowns. This happened in Vienna -whilst the monarch was still only Crown Prince. Lähnfeldt, -who had quite early begun to imagine that his unknown -father was a high-born aristocrat, did everything -to correct the unjust fate that had given him a plebeian -name, and when travelling he always used to try to come -into contact with royalty. And now he had managed to -procure rooms at the hotel adjoining the suite of the Crown -Prince, Charles. It struck him at once that the Crown -Prince received a lot of people who did not behave with -becoming reverence at all. When he questioned the porters, -he shrugged his shoulders. The callers were simply creditors. -A gentleman of his Highness’ suite had gambled -away all the funds, and for some incomprehensible reason -no money arrived from home. He could not even pay -his hotel bill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Herman Bogislaus Lähnfeldt needed no more. He decided -to intervene at once for the salvation of the monarchic -principle. Bowing, he stepped up to the Crown -Prince Charles and begged that an old admirer of the house -of Bragança might be allowed to hand over to its present -august representative an humble gift of a hundred thousand -crowns to be used for some charitable purpose.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The Crown Prince received the cheque with an amazed -but gracious smile.</p> - -<p class='c009'>About half a year later, Lähnfeldt received two large -letters with seals of State and Portuguese stamps. One -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>contained an account of the use to which his money had -been put in an Orphanage in Lisbon, the other letter contained -the letters patent of his title.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He rushed down to Lisbon and threw himself at the feet -of the newly crowned King Charles. Then he rushed home -again to buy an estate as a background to his new dignity. -And now he sat here at Trefvinge, the ancestral home of -the Oxenstierna family, and tried to fill out the magnificent -frame.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Such was Count Lähnfeldt’s history.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He had one great grief. The title was not hereditary. -Already in Elvira’s childhood he would look at the little -plebeian with compassion and melancholy. And when she -grew up his only hope lay in a suitable marriage for her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You must marry, Elvira,” he preached. “If you don’t -marry you will remain plain ‘Miss’ all your life.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But it had not pleased Miss Elvira to marry yet. She -was already nearing thirty. Some suitors she had turned -away herself, others had withdrawn of their own accord, -to the great astonishment of all but the initiated.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Neither Stellan nor Manne belonged to the initiated. -But both were in such miserable circumstances. And they -knew only too well each other’s business at Trefvinge. All -the same, they kept countenance when they met out in the -sunshine on the steps, at least Stellan did. Manne was -not quite so happy. The poor boy had of course arrived -first at the mill but it hurt him all the same to stand in -the way of an old friend. So he cast timid and remorseful -glances at Stellan when he helped Miss Elvira into the -saddle.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She, on the other hand, seemed in excellent spirits this -morning.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Come on, Captain Selamb,” she said with a little side-glance -at her father. “Cæsar II is free. We are riding -towards the sand pit.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan’s voice sounded cold:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>“Thank you, but I am too much handicapped.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She shrugged her shoulders and gave her black mare a -light cut with her whip. But Manne sat still and looked -as if he could not get going. Stellan was cruel enough -to wave a glove, with a meaning wink, to remind his friend -of his faithlessness to “The Glove.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Never before in his life had Manne looked so lost on -horseback. He suddenly set his bay to a gallop and followed -his companion, who was already disappearing -through the park gates.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had settled on an entirely different plan of action -to Manne. He had made up his mind to be indifferent -to Miss Lähnfeldt so as to excite her spirit of contradiction, -and to try to win the father instead. For that reason he -at once began to display immense interest in the history -of the castle. Faithfully and indefatigably he accompanied -the Count, as he rattled out a whole armoury of dates, -and roamed around like a parody of greatness in the many -splendid apartments. Patiently he sat for hours in the -library amongst peerages, pedigrees, genealogies, and -Gotha-almanacs and listened to the anecdotes of the lord of -the castle. Count Lähnfeldt knew every anecdote concerning -a prince.... Then they walked outside and down -the steps, and Stellan duly admired the Oxenstierna coat -of arms cut in sandstone over the proud Renaissance doorway. -He sat with a becoming thrill of reverence on the -seat round the giant oak which Axel Oxenstierna had -planted with his own hand and in the shadow of which -the Count, like the previous owners of the castle, used to -sit and marvel at “the small amount of wisdom that the -world is ruled with” and grow horrified at the tendency -of the time to level us all “like pigs’ feet.” Stellan was -surprised at himself that he need not sit silent at the feast -but was also able to say something about Oxenstierna. -The moment before he had not suspected his knowledge. -It had been the same at school long ago when lazy Stellan -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>always knew an answer after all. Perhaps it was some -kind of thought reading....</p> - -<p class='c009'>The Count by and by worked himself up into stammering -enthusiasm. Oxenstierna! Oxenstierna! It sounded -as if he were speaking of his own ancestor. Well, who -knows if he had not some such thoughts. Then he took -Stellan’s arm and drew him to the small Chapel, of which -he had the patronage, whose white-washed gable shone -under the yellowing birches on the other side of the garden -wall. He took the rather large key of the crypt out of -a case he always carried in his pocket, and staggered in -front of Stellan down into the dusky vault. And over the -richly carved oak and copper coffins he mumbled reverently -a string of names of which most were well known -in history, and stopped at last in front of a gigantic open -coffin of porphyry, the lid of which was leaning against -the wall.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This,” he said, caressing the carvings on the lid, which -depicted a bear with a little child on its back, “is the -Lähnfeldt coat of arms. And here I shall one day rest -my weary bones.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>You could hear from his tone that death had lost its -bitterness for him since he would enter such distinguished -company.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After all this the Count was a little tired, and, excusing -himself on the plea of important correspondence, he went -up to take his little snooze before dinner, just like any -ordinary human being.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan wandered about alone with his hands behind his -back in the stately park of Trefvinge. Around him this -September day he heard from the high tree tops a sharp -sound, as from an over-tense string. In the clear transparent -air a dry leaf floated slowly down to his feet with -a fine even motion. It was a motion as symmetrical and -regular as the shape of the leaf itself. He pondered for -a moment on the static problem. Then it struck him that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>even in his youth he had felt irritated that wealth and -secure luxury should chase shadows and idle fancies in -order to obtain a little excitement. He suddenly shivered -with a light but penetrating dread. He realised here in -the silence of the park in a way that he had never done -before, that he, Stellan Selamb, was on the verge of ruin. -“If I don’t succeed in this,” he thought, “there is no other -way out than the revolver....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan stood there with twitching face and a queer helpless -movement of his right hand. What was the matter, -were his nerves already giving way? “Well, of course, -one does not lead a life like mine without being punished -for it,” he muttered. “Strange that it comes like this in -the stillness and not in the balloon out there over the sea, -for instance....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He took a few steps but halted again suddenly amongst -the sunny patches on the hard dry road. The thought -that she, Elvira Lähnfeldt, was now riding by Manne’s -side irritated him like a noxious poison. He saw her suddenly -in the light of anxious and trembling hope. He -saw her as she had sat in the sunshine, light, straight, -elegant on her nervous jet black horse. Her assurance -and her recklessness were thorns in his side. For a moment -he found her really beautiful and desirable in her -cool refinement. The brittle, overstrung elements in her -character seemed to him to be in wonderful harmony with -the beautiful autumn day. Fancy if he might lead a calm -and exquisite life together with this child of luxury and -taste with her the joys of a satisfied ambition! Even the -thought of her secret infirmity seemed to him at this moment -an additional refinement, a promise of a painless, concentrated -life of pleasure.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan pulled himself up as if at a word of command. -“Damn it, I am not falling in love, I hope,” he thought. -But the next moment his thought was: “No, dash it all, -the fact is I have not slept for several nights!” He struck -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>his leg with his stick: “Keep cool! If you get sentimental, -all is lost. She is nothing but a whimsical and obstinate -child and you must conquer her through her whims and -her obstinacy.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>For a moment Stellan felt his head swim and the ground -give way under his feet. This made him doubly reckless. -Partly from a kind of cruel sensuousness and partly to -give himself courage, he began in imagination to undress -her and lay bare her infirmity. “It is not the softest women -who are the weakest,” he thought. “With all her arrogance -and all her sport she is really a poor, delicate, and -enfeebled creature. She is suffering from the disease of -wealth, the sapping of strength of those who do not need -to do anything for their living. And she can’t have children. -The future is cut out of her body. Whence can she -derive any strong instincts difficult to conquer? No, she -is really a very easy victim to one who is wise and -reckless....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan already smiled to himself. “No, my dear Manne, -you are too good natured,” he thought. “Even from behind -one can see when you are lying....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he hurried in to dress for dinner.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The evening of that same day, Stellan and Manne were -standing out in the moonlight on the narrow balcony that -ran outside their two rooms on the first floor. The host -and hostess had already withdrawn and everything was -quiet in the big house behind them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan scrutinized his old friend. Manne’s face was -pale over his big white shirt front. There was really not -much left of the old irrepressible Manne von Strelert.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The old man isn’t exactly exciting,” Stellan mumbled, -pointing with his thumb towards the house. Manne answered -with unusual vehemence:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why can’t he realize that he is behind the times with -his aristocracy! That sort of thing originated in the middle -ages, damn it all! And how he chews my poor ‘Baron.’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>Heavens above, it makes me wish I were a grocer.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was amazed that Manne should get excited so -easily. He felt a strange cold satisfaction and continued -pitilessly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My dear Manne, you have not much respect for your -prospective father-in-law.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne started as if he had been struck. He was unguarded -and had no repartee ready. He put his hand -on Stellan’s arm and mumbled almost tenderly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Stellan ... don’t let us talk about that any more....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>For a moment they stood silent, looking out into the -blue shimmering night which was full of small fluttering -creatures. Below them the apple trees in the orchard -were bowed down with fruit. Further away a thin veil -of mist lay over a meadow in which were some grazing -cows whose white spots shone like newly washed clothes -in the moonlight. And beyond the bright edging of yellow -reeds the bay of Lake Mälar lay dreaming with a narrow -silver streak upon it that leapt into life when a breeze -passed. Still further there were reflections of the moon -constantly appearing and disappearing where the water -seemed to repose as calm as a mirror but was all the same -stirred by a faint ground swell.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The whole atmosphere seemed full of the delicious coolness -of rich ripe fruits, and full of the peace and calm of -possession and ownership.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Fancy that there are people who lead quiet and happy -lives,” mumbled Manne.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan imitated his tone:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, why are we not innocent vegetarians, feeding on -carrots and staring at the moon.... Nonsense! Manne! -Nonsense! There are people who lead dull lives, and -people who don’t. Let us as long as possible belong to -the latter! Now is the hour of lovers and gamblers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He suddenly made a gesture embracing the castles and -the acres of Trefvinge.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>“Look here, Manne, all this that seems so safe and still—shall -we cut through the pack for it tonight?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>When these words escaped Stellan he had still no second -thought. It looked as if Manne did not at first understand -what he meant. He remained silent for a long time, -but then he mumbled too:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes. Let’s cut for it.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a strange dull note of relief in his voice. -It was as if his friend had relieved him of the burden of -willing and choosing for himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thoughts flashed quick as lightning through Stellan’s -brain. It was now that he began to feel a strange assurance -that he would somehow win. His words came quick, -like rapier thrusts:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have an unopened pack of cards with me. We will -simply back our luck. He who draws the highest heart -stays. The other leaves early tomorrow morning on the -clear understanding that he does not intend to come back.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne was paler than ever and had a vacant look in -his eyes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Right you are!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan ran inside to his room and searched for the -cards. The lamp was not lit. He had to search for a -long time in his suit case. Meanwhile he was thinking -swift as lightning. “Manne must not draw the highest -heart,” he thought, “No, not this time. For then all is -over with me....” The shiver and the dizziness he had -felt in the park returned. “No, Manne must not draw -the highest card....” At last he found the pack of -cards, picked it up with trembling hands and pressed his -thumb nail hard into the edge of the ace of hearts as it -peeped out through the round hole in the wrapper. There -must be quite a noticeable mark on the other side ... -Stellan had not premeditated this, had never before done -anything of the kind. He felt something approaching -surprise.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>“Well, that is what we Selambs do,” he muttered to -himself. Quickly he went back to Manne’s room and -flung the pack on the table:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You open the pack and shuffle!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne took up the pack and shuffled slowly, almost -indifferently. Stellan sat down opposite him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We must avoid misunderstandings,” he said. “The -two is lowest and the ace highest, isn’t that so?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With a gesture indicative of long practice Manne spread -the cards out fan-like on the polished surface of the mahogany -table:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You draw first, as I shuffled.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan’s eyes looked searchingly at the fan for the -marked card. No, he could not see it. He must gain -time. He opened his cigarette case:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Let us smoke a cigarette together, before we draw. -It will be the most exquisite cigarette we ever smoked -together. A cigarette with Fate....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The cigarettes were finished. Stellan had to draw. -Now he saw the ace on the extreme right. The little mark -on the back of the card was noticeable in a tiny reflection -from the lamp. Stellan had a feeling of being lifted off -the floor, of soaring. But he did not dare to draw the -ace at once. That would have looked too strange. He -had to minimize the risk.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Look here, Manne,” he said, smilingly. “Supposing I -draw a low heart straight off and you draw a club. Then -it would be sudden death. That would be idiotic extravagance -with our precious excitement. We will continue -to draw till each of us has at least one heart and after -that the highest wins.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right,” said Manne. His tone had become more -and more obviously indifferent.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan drew the nine of clubs. He saw Manne’s hand -<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>hovering over the cards with cold excitement. But it -stopped at the harmless end and drew the ace of spades.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Next draw. Not even now could Stellan make up his -mind to take the ace of hearts. He drew a card beside -it, thinking that Manne, in obedience to some psychological -law, would try his luck at the other end. He drew the -two of clubs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne drew the knave of hearts. A cry escaped him. -It sounded as if he had hurt himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had not drawn a heart yet. Now he had to -take it. He felt strangely frightened. It seemed as if -he were about to put his hand into somebody else’s purse. -He felt as if all his fellow officers were sitting round him -staring at his fingers. “No, damn it, what am I really -doing,” he thought. Then he pulled himself together. -“Bah—you must throw out ballast—keep afloat. And nobody -knows!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He turned up the ace.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne leaned back in his chair with a little tired smile, -a smile of sad, weary, pathetic relief.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Congratulations,” he muttered, “congratulations. Fate -was right that time, perfectly right.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>They smoked for a moment in silence. Stellan wanted -to say something encouraging but could not get the words -over his lips. It was Manne who took up the thread again:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I say, Stellan, don’t you sometimes shudder at life -... and yourself?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“When some excitement is over, I sometimes feel discomfort....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne’s voice sounded childishly pleading:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, but Stellan, have you never experienced moments -when you really shudder at yourself ... at all the miserable -and damnable things one has done?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I have never permitted myself that luxury.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Marine looked at him with a mien in which for the first -time there was something of a stranger.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>“You are a bit of a barbarian after all, my dear Stellan,” -he mumbled, “You have a queer insensibility on which -to fall back. I am damned if I know how it is but I -have never been able to <i>will</i> anything when I have been -with you. But I will tell you this much, I should never -have entered into this folly if I had not made up my mind -beforehand to escape from it all. It’s disquieting to play -for a living human being.... No, away with it all....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My dear Manne, I can’t help it if you only drew a -knave of hearts,” mumbled Stellan coldly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, old boy, of course you can’t, but that’s not the -point. I have felt the whole time that this was impossible. -You don’t understand what a human being can feel like, -Stellan. I played only because you proposed it. For -twenty years I have not done anything else but what you -proposed. I am a wretch. And you, Stellan, what are -you? Imagine! I have known you for so long and yet -I don’t even know that. It’s strange, but tonight ... I -almost seem to catch a glimpse of you, after all. Yes, -you are one of those who succeed in everything. You -remain a Selamb. And all the same I am somehow sorry -for you, Stellan. Yes, I feel damned sorry for you, because, -you see, there is something in life that you would -never understand if you lived to be a hundred....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Manne had never been known to make so long a speech -before. Stellan stood up and patted him on the shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My dear Manne, now you are ready for a rest,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That’s right ... ready for a rest,” muttered Manne, -and gave Stellan a hand which at first was limp, but afterwards -pressed hard the hand of his friend.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus they separated.</p> - -<p class='c009'>If Manne had realized, about ten years earlier, all he -realized that night, his life would perhaps have been -shaped differently.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan did not go to bed immediately. The genial mists -of sleep seemed to have flown into the infinite distance. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>stood in the moonlight leaning against the stone parapet -of the balcony and felt how its chill mounted from his -hands to his chest. His thoughts multiplied mechanically -and spread like hoar frost. He thought of his own life. -“I have been an incurable gambler,” he thought. “Well, -what of it—it requires courage after all, that flirtation with -Fate. You can say what you like but I have been a dare-devil. -Chance has been my God and I have not betrayed -him....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Cold and penetrating a voice returned the answer he -had expected all the time: “Not until tonight. You marked -the cards. You were frightened, Stellan Selamb, frightened....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was not, for the moment, thinking of Manne, -whom he had seduced into gambling, from whom he had -won, and whom he now knew to be destitute. No, he -only heard the voice that had called him afraid: So cold -and selfish can conscience be.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I was not at all frightened,” he protested. “The -fact is that I at last perceived my own stupidity. What -the devil is the use of relying on chance. Chance is the -fool of necessity, nothing else. And we have been the -fools of the fool. If everything is a mathematical certainty -what the deuce does it matter if I dig my nail into -an ace of hearts!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But it is dangerous to betray one’s God even if he is a -fool. The pitiless voice was not silenced: “You stole -your friend’s last chance, Stellan Selamb, you are no -longer a gambler, you are a thief, a cowardly thief.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan shuddered. That is the worst that can happen -to a man of his stamp—to doubt his own courage. He -discovers all at once all the things he has neglected to be -afraid of. The stone parapet felt dreadfully cold. It -positively made his hands stiff. But he could not let go. -The moon seemed to breathe a silent, cold threat. What -lies were told about the moon? A dead world! The death’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>head from space grinned into his face. Stellan suddenly -looked round with an uncertain look. Behind him rose -the high white façade like a wall of snow. It struck a -chill into his back. And behind it slept the woman without -a future, the woman whose bosom was a tomb. Was -it not almost suicide to take such a half dead creature to -wife?</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why do I stand here in the moonlight,” he thought. -“Am I alive or am I only a ghost?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, the moment of agony had come to Stellan Selamb -as it comes to everybody. He felt a cruel fear. But it -was not the fear that is the beginning of wisdom. He had -gracefully skated on the outside edge on the smooth ice -of prejudices and fictions. But now he had fallen through -into deep reality. “Ugh—this seems to be bottomless! -Yes, the world is as deep as my fears.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan came down late the following morning and found -Count Lähnfeldt in an evident bad temper at Captain von -Strelert’s sudden and unceremonious departure.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But out on the parapet of the steps Elvira sat already -impatiently waiting for her ride. She laughed and -shrugged her shoulders:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The Baron has already run away,” she said. “It was -not an orderly retreat, it was precipitate flight.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The morning sun and the ride helped Stellan to recover -himself. After the ghostly visions of the night he -enjoyed feeling Cæsar’s fine shoulders working beneath -him. The coolness of the rushing air around his forehead -and temples mingled exquisitely with the gentle innocent -warmth of the beautiful, gleaming body of the -horse. Stellan did not feel exactly tired, only strangely -unsubstantial and fragile.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They were riding in silence and he kept a little behind. -He could not understand his feelings yesterday in the -park. No, today he looked at her more critically than -<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>ever. Even during the ride when she appeared to greater -advantage than otherwise he found in her something attenuated, -tense, unsexed, that left his instincts cold and -unmoved. But that did not worry him now. It was rather -a relief. It somehow made the thing easier. For one -always feels it is easier to reach a goal that one does not -long for too intensely. And it was high time. Tomorrow -the rest of the shooting party was due to arrive, and -then it might be difficult to find an opportunity.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan tried to imagine how his rejected predecessors -had behaved under similar circumstances. Of course they -had stopped her in a narrow concealed forest path where -the horses had been forced close together and were caressing -each other’s noses in the twilight of the pines. And -then they had avowed their intentions in the traditional -style and received a shrug of the shoulders for an answer.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan made up his mind that she should hear something -different.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He chose a moment when they were stopped by a -floating bridge which was open to let pass a sand barge -that was just being slowly towed through. His tone was -as cold as possible:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Miss Lähnfeldt, what would you say to a shoot in -Africa?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She really looked surprised.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“A shoot in Africa?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, up the Nile, for instance. To shoot hippopotamuses, -crocodiles, lions. You get a licence in Cairo and -hire a boat, a comfortable house-boat, and a few niggers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well ... yes ... perhaps it would be an idea ... -since we can’t go to the moon....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“And how do you think I would be as manager and -courier then?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well ... perhaps....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Would you like to try it with me?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am afraid it would be a bit difficult to arrange.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>“Not if we got married....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She suddenly looked straight at him, defiantly, nervously. -Her voice was hard, almost shrill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am ... an invalid....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“And I am ruined....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>A moment before Stellan had never meant to say anything -of the kind; he only had a clear feeling that he -must be absolutely unsentimental. But he did not regret -it. A brutal sincerity may sometimes be the most refined -of lies.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The barge had at last passed through and sailed on. -Stellan continued in a different and more passionate tone:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I don’t seek any repetition of my life’s former adventures. -What is most exquisite in you, Elvira, is that -you are ... free. Heaven protect me from those women -who only breathe the nursery. No, there is a different and -more robust air about you, an air in which one can breathe. -I have never dreamt of such courage in a woman as you -showed up in the rigging of the balloon. I sincerely believe -that we together might do something bold and great -with our lives.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“To begin with, we should make father furious,” she -said in a voice that did not sound at all distressed at the -prospect. Then she suddenly turned her horse and started -off homewards at a sharp gallop.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan followed silent and pale, with lips pressed -tight together, without knowing what to think. It was -exactly the same feeling as he had in the presence of the -roulette ball. Through his head a ridiculous thought -flashed. “Be bold and take your courage in both hands. -I never talked about courage till I began to doubt it. And -now just because I am afraid I shall fling down my -courage as if it were the ace of trumps in the highest -suit. It will be a continuation of yesterday’s little cheating -game.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>And he felt how chill self-contempt was beginning to -grow up out of the events of the night....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Not until they had arrived at the broad steps did the -whirling ball stop. Then the princess of the palace reined -in her horse and graciously stretched out her hand with a -quick nervous smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, all right then....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan did not kiss her riding glove. In front of the -groom he bent quickly forward and pressed his lips to -her cheek.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She kept her countenance.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, one can still live, even with a little self-contempt,” -he thought, when of her own accord she put her arm -through his on the steps. He was right. Nothing really -improves your chances better in the game of life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Elvira was right in saying her father would be furious. -The little man positively swelled with wounded dignity, -when Stellan came to ask for his daughter’s hand. Elvira -hastened to point out that she was of age and could do -as she liked, but then he threatened to cast her off, to disinherit -her. Yes, he would give all he possessed to the -House of Nobles. She tore his heart to pieces when she -reminded him in a dry tone that all he possessed came from -her mother and that she had her own inheritance from her -mother. To be the head of the noble family of Lähnfeldt, -and to hear such words from a degenerate plebeian -daughter was truly terrible. He summoned to his assistance -all the great departed of the castle to fight his fight -against his blind and irreverent daughter. He painted in -wonderful colours the brilliant and distinguished future -she was thoughtlessly flinging away. He threatened to -descend on her wedding day into the big porphyry coffin -in the crypt below the Church.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Goodness only knows if Elvira would have had the -strength to struggle on, had not the old man’s mad and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>obstinate resistance suddenly received a blow. A few -weeks later a scandal occurred in society that put the -Count’s superstitious belief in the aristocrat to a severe -test.</p> - -<p class='c009'>His own choice, Baron Manne von Strelert, Captain of -the Horse Guards, had shot himself after having forged -Count Lähnfeldt’s signature on a bill for twenty thousand -crowns. Then the lord of Trefvinge at last gave in, sighing. -Poor Manne had served Stellan even unto death....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Where Manne had hidden those lost twenty thousand -crowns was never quite cleared up. But amongst his fellow -officers there was some talk about “The Glove,” having -taken fine new business premises immediately after his -death and having considerably increased her business.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was married at the end of November. There -was a splendid ceremony in Church with many decorations -and uniforms. Peter was promised higher interest on his -loans on the condition that he was ill and absent from the -celebrations.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The general opinion was that the bridegroom looked a -little stiff and aged.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The pair set out immediately for Africa for their shoot.</p> - -<p class='c009'>While the rice pattered against the window of the reserved -carriage decorated with flowers, people outside on the platform -whispered to each other that there was not much risk -in this couple penetrating into Africa, as everybody knew -that nothing could happen to the bride.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span> - <h2 class='c005'>V<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>WASTE</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>The Selamb stratagem had succeeded with Tord and -his wife. A couple of years had passed without anything -being heard from them. Stellan could celebrate -his wedding without the slightest admixture of bohemianism. -And Tord had not again exercised his temperament -in the press. Everything was quiet and the pair had -evidently settled for good out there by the sea.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But then a communication arrived at Selambshof, signed -Tord of Järnö, in which Peter was enjoined in angry and -haughty tones immediately to procure more money.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In less than three years the money had wasted away. -Let us see how this had happened.</p> - -<p class='c009'>First of all they had of course built beyond their means -in the wildest manner. When Tord and Dagmar one still -and radiant April day paid their first visit to Järnö, they, -of course, proudly ignored the insipid, idyllic southern -glen with its little red tenant’s cottage and rushed up -amongst the sparse stunted pines on the hill above. On -the highest, most exposed point, where there was a view -over both the bay and the sea, they stopped:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This is where the house shall stand!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And it must be built of thick, round logs with a covered -verandah, and a dragon’s head and open fireplace. An -eagle’s eyrie on the cliff it was to be. Tord made the -drawings himself. But not a tree must be felled on Järnö, -so all the timber must be brought in. Labour might probably -have been found on the islands round about if they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>had not been in such a hurry. But they had to get workmen -from town. And terribly troublesome and expensive -it was to trail the heavy logs from the pier up the steep hill, -where there was not even a path.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Anyhow, towards the middle of the summer the grating -of the saws and the blows of the hammers were heard.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Meanwhile Tord and Dagmar lived a glorious tent life -on a meadow by the sea. They sailed in their new-built -boat, swam, took sunbaths and ran about naked like savages -on the rocks to the great amusement of the workmen up on -top.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One day Tord covered Dagmar all over with fine clay -taken from the bottom of the bay and she stood there in -shining blue on the shell-covered sand, like a statue. -Mattson the bailiff came walking down between the juniper -bushes with an unfinished oar on his shoulders. She, however, -stood still and laughed aloud:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Selamb has made a statue of me! Don’t you think I’m -a funny statue, Mattson?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Mattson blinked his eyes and walked on, shaking his grey -head at such shamelessness. He wondered in his own mind -what sort of gentlefolk had come out to Järnö.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After dinner they went up towards the hill to see if their -house was growing. Tord always had a bottle under his -arm, and when work was finished the men were treated all -round to a drink. Neither he nor Dagmar despised the -glass. These little festivities were not exactly ceremonious, -for the men soon discovered that they had no need to choose -their words. Dagmar laughed and Tord imitated their -phrases as soon as the drink began to affect him. It was -wonderfully easy to learn their language. “I am studying -the people,” he thought, “I look straight through their -simple minds. I will make something out of it some day, -something uncommonly fresh and piquant....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But then it grew suddenly silent as the weary workmen -staggered down to sleep in the bailiff’s barn. And with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>the silence it seemed as if space had suddenly become a -deep vortex. And the evening was cruelly cold and green -over the serrated edges of the black forests in the west. -Then it was a comfort to have spirit in your body. Tord -threw back his head, a little too much back, he almost -toppled over. “I am a poet,” he thought. “It is I, Tord -Selamb, who am pleased to interpret the mysterious meaning -of the dull song of the ground swell. The sea, the -clouds, the cliffs are mine, and I do with them as I like. -Wait till I give myself up to it. Then I shall produce a -hymn, something powerful, rude, infernal, something of -nature’s elemental beauty....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And he felt a supreme contempt for the miserable slaves -in town.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he went to sleep in Dagmar’s arms, which were -brown and cool and soft.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Towards autumn the eyrie in the cliffs was ready. It -was visible from afar and became at once an excellent -and recognized landmark for sailors both out at sea and -in the bay. There was a large, high hall and a couple of -small rooms with folding beds. Tord furnished them with -reindeer skins, elk horns, Lapplanders’ knives, guns, axes -and ice hooks. And over the door a bear’s skull glinted -ghostlike in the twilight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They had made a secret arrangement with the old gardener -at Selambshof, the philosopher in the neglected garden, -and he used to come out as their only servant. He -had been a sailor before he started growing cabbages and -he felt a longing for the sea. His work was to carry water, -make log fires, and open tins of preserves.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Meanwhile the Mattsons down in the dell lived their quiet -workaday life, tied to the soil, the water, and the seasons of -the year. They banked up their potatoes, cut their hay and -their rye, milked their two cows, and plied their nets and -lines, all with silent, disapproving side-glances at the queer -folk on the hill.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>As long as there was summer and sunshine and the air -vibrated with the hammer blows on his cliff fortress, Tord -was contemptuous of the silent disapproval that crawled -about on its ridiculous daily round somewhere below his -feet. But now it was autumn, silent, still, darkening -autumn, far away from the noise and the lights of the town. -And Tord began by and by to realize that the Mattsons -were in their neighbourhood.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One evening he took a bottle in his pocket and climbed -down into the valley: “I will feel that devil’s pulse,” he -thought.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Mattson sat in his workshop carving:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, Mattson, shall we have a drink to clear our -heads?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Thank you, sir, but I don’t care about anything strong -in the middle of the week like this.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, I’ll drink it myself then. What are you slaving -away at?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The old man thoughtfully turned a piece of lilac wood -in his hand before he began to work with his knife:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am making pins for a rake.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now, for the winter?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Summer will come again. And it’s not good for poor -people to be idle....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was one for Tord. He struck at the nettles outside -the door with his stick. The calm in Mattson’s eyes irritated -him. Both sea and sky became commonplace beside -that miserable plodding. What was the use of the autumn -coming and the leaves falling and the darkness and loneliness -when Mattson sat carving rake pins all the same?</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I will pay you back for that, old fellow,” thought Tord. -And he longed for an autumn storm, a real three-day -autumn gale. Especially when he had his nets out.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then came the autumn ploughing. Nobody possessed -beasts of burden out here by the sea, but Mattson’s neighbours -came sailing in with their wives. And then they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>yoked themselves to the plough. Mattson’s wife also took -part and pulled, though she was so old, but Mattson drove. -Furrow after furrow they ploughed in the drizzling rain -with tough sustained persistence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord ran into the forest to escape seeing it. But he -found no peace, he had to go back to the ploughing. For -a moment he stood behind a juniper bush and stamped -with anger, then he suddenly rushed out into the clay:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Stop!” he cried. “This is my soil and I won’t look -on at this miserable business.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>They stopped and stared at him:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What is one to do when the island will not feed a -beast?” suggested Mattson.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord stalked about with heavy lumps of clay under his -shoes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How much can you get out of these miserable patches?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, about three bushels of rye,” mumbled the bailiff, -and wiped the perspiration from his forehead with the back -of his hand. “The soil is good.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, I’ll pay you for three bushels! But get away -now!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Tord took out some bank-notes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Mattson looked at his neighbour and shook his -head:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, sir, you mustn’t make fun of an old man. I have -ploughed this soil for forty years, I have. You put your -money back again.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Upon which Mattson made a sign to the drawers, who put -their backs into the work again and continued their furrow -as if nothing had happened.</p> - -<p class='c009'>From that day on Tord hated all that was Mattson’s. -Incessantly he was running up against the object of his -annoyance. Mattson’s cock woke him in the mornings -with his obstinate moralisings on the dung heap. When -he went down to his boat he swore because he had to dive -under the old man’s nets, and on the juniper slope he was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>irritated by the stupid bleating of the sheep. In the midst -of his land he was again reminded of Mattson by a lot of -troublesome fences, cleverly built up of stones, branches -and thorns. Such things irritate a free man strolling about -on his own property. Tord did not step over them, no, he -put his foot on the rubbish and enjoyed hearing it crash -down, and he stepped through as proudly as if he were -stepping over the walls of Jericho. But the next time he -came strolling along he found to his fury that the fence -had been repaired as if by magic.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was work, patience, foresight, civilization that Tord -hated in Mattson. This hatred occupied him fully the whole -of the autumn. If he sat down to write and could not get -into the right mood it was Mattson’s fault. If he got drunk -it was as a protest against the sobriety of that damned old -blockhead. When at last the gale came, Tord had his great -day. A real raging south-easterly gale so that the old man -could not get out and save his catch but had to go about -waiting anxiously to haul in his torn nets full of seaweed -and rubbish.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One day Tord flew into a real rage. One of his dogs, -a big ferocious mastiff, had caught his leg in a fox trap -which the bailiff persisted in putting out in spite of Tord’s -prohibition. There was a terrible scene and Tord would -probably have struck the old man in his own kitchen if -Dagmar had not come between them. But from that -moment Tord swore inwardly that Mattson should leave -Järnö. He only waited for quarter day, which was the first -of December, to give him notice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>You can imagine his malicious joy when the whole first -week of December had passed without Mattson bringing the -rent.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The old man only stared when at last he came with his -poor notes and was told that he was to leave at once.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I have lived here forty years,” he mumbled calmly, -“And I have always been accustomed to pay some time in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>December after I have been into town and sold my salted -herrings and mutton.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He could not realize anything so catastrophic as that he -should leave Järnö.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord stood there grey in the face shaking the lease in his -hand. “Now I suppose I shall see something else than -that damned calm in your eyes,” he thought.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You have not paid in due time, and now you have got -to clear out. Järnö is mine, you see, and I don’t want you -here any longer.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Mattson only shook his head. He went home with a very -thoughtful expression, and the same day he hauled up the -sail of his big boat to go into town to speak to the storekeeper -and to people versed in law, in order to find out the -rights of the matter. But his wife came up to Dagmar -crying. And Dagmar begged for her and scolded Tord -and said that he was disgusting, but it was no use. And -then she cried too, because she was afraid of the loneliness, -when she would be the only woman on the island. But -Tord rushed out and stalked about alone the whole of the -cold winter day with his lame dog and would not be mollified.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Mattson returned from his journey with a gloomy face, -and offered to compromise by a payment of damages. Yes, -he would even try to pay a higher rent. But Tord only -shouted that he wanted to be left in peace.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The following day Mattson came again, and this time he -was humble and alarmed, and begged as if for his life. -And now it was a joy for Tord to look into his eyes. Yes, -he had a great and lovely revenge on all the prudence and -calmness of the world. He escaped with a cruel feeling -of pleasure from the idler’s secret feeling of inferiority.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No!” he cut him short. “I won’t move. You’ll find -here, Mattson, no use for your rake pins. Clear out now!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Shortly before Christmas a couple of sand barges arrived -at the pier, and took on board Mattson’s corn, cattle, furniture -<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>and tools. It cut one’s heart to see the kitchen table, -the folding bed, the plants, moved out into the winter cold. -Tord stood up on his hill-top and watched. He meant to -be defiant and hardhearted and enjoy the ice-cold wind. -But as a matter of fact he was frightened and felt sick.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then four steady and determined men from the barges -came up and demanded on Mattson’s account a round sum -for the autumn sowing, manure, newly planted fruit trees, -and improvements to piers, fences, outhouses. Tord paid -without bargaining and with a certain tremulous eagerness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Mattson did not show himself except on a receipt.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then one of the barges set off with the old couple on -board. The other remained a little behind. There, hidden -among the alders by the shore, stood a powerful youth and -peered up towards the hill. When he saw Tord set out for -a walk, he followed him unperceived. He chose a quiet, -suitable place where there were no witnesses. There he -suddenly sprang out and gave Tord a blow on the back of -his head, so that he fell unconscious for a time and awoke -covered with blood and with two teeth missing. The barge -had already disappeared, swallowed up by the grey ice-cold -winter twilight across the bay.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was the first time Tord had suffered rough, bodily -ill-treatment. It brought out again all the timid hatred of -mankind that his marriage had seemed for a moment to -thrust aside.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He came home late and said he had fallen and struck -against a tree stump. Dagmar could not help laughing for -a moment at the ridiculous gap in his teeth. But she -stopped short when she saw his expression, and her laugh -turned to sobs. She had evil presentiments, Dagmar, and -they were to come true....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord had not so many opportunities of kicking down -Mattson’s fences and revelling in his new eaglelike loneliness. -It soon appeared that he must go and buy provisions -if they were not to starve to death when the ice came -<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>and it was too thick to get through with a boat, and not -thick enough to walk on. They had, as a matter of fact, -cut away the ground beneath their feet by turning Mattson -out. Where were they now to procure milk, fish, meat and -wood? Tord sailed about to the neighbouring islands and -told the peasants to bring him these necessities, but they -were annoyed at his treatment of Mattson and therefore -could not spare him even a herring.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord was to learn to his annoyance that Mattson with his -foresight and experience had stood like a rock between -him and a thousand worries and difficulties. But this only -strengthened him in his angry resolve to help himself. In -a furious north wind he and the old gardener sailed twelve -miles to the nearest store and there he bought a boatload -of preserved food, ham, potatoes, flour and lamp oil. They -had to hack their way out of the harbour through ice half -an inch thick, frozen during the night, so it was high -time....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then came the real winter and locked them in with dark -and unsafe ice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At the end of February the old gardener fell on the very -slippery ground when he was carrying water from the well, -and broke his leg above the knee. Fortunately the ice bore -just then, so they were able to get him into hospital. They -could not tempt another servant out to the eagle’s nest, so -now they had to shift for themselves. Tord was not able -to climb the hill with water and wood, so they had to move -into Mattson’s humble cottage for the winter. In the spring -Tord had soundings made but they found no water up on -the hill: so he had to bring out more workmen to construct -a proper road up. All this cost money—so much that even -Tord realized he could not go on for ever. Then he bought -fishing and shooting implements and a few goats in order -to help him out, and he took to cattle breeding. But now for -the first time he really missed Mattson’s experience.... -He did not know where to try for the cod. He did not know -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>how to deal with a tangled net. The ducks flew past when -he lay out in the skerries. And the goats soon dried up; -and besides, they became so wild that he could not catch -them. So during the course of the summer these means of -support failed him, and he had to turn to expensive -preserved food again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar had not much time to run about naked in the -sunshine this summer. There was not so much left that -was “beautiful and wonderful and lovely.” But she had -not quite lost her gypsy-like boisterousness and freedom -from care, though when there was no alcohol left and the -bad weather really set in, it might happen that she grew -sulky and quarrelsome. Once towards the autumn when -she had had special cause for anxiety she mentioned town, -but Tord flew into such a rage that she was frightened and -flew out into the kitchen with her cards and her pipe. And -Tord strolled about the shores for weeks cogitating in dull -anger on the shameless weakness and faithlessness of -women.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The whole of this winter Tord went about plaguing himself -with his money worries, so that he had no energy left -for anything else. The great book that he was to write, -his masterpiece, his hymn to nature, weighed him down -like a dead weight. It was like loose ballast which only -increased the lurch, when he inclined to melancholy. -Nature swayed around him like a helpless chaos. He had -moments of hatred of the frequent gales that would never -yield a song. He grew furious with the eternal, rolling, -breaking seas whose rhythm he could not catch.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Money,” he thought, “that cursed money. I am never -free!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Towards the spring he at last wrote the letter to Peter. -It had cost him weeks of effort and disgust, such a terror -had he of everything in the nature of business. His -haughty insolence was only an armour to shield him -against his lack of confidence, his fear, and his suspicions.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>Peter had not expected such news so soon. He rubbed -his hands. And he took good care not to show the letter to -his brother and sisters. This time he meant to settle the -business alone. Peter delayed his reply for a whole fortnight -in order to humble Tord. Then he came sailing out -himself to Järnö, not in his own cutter, but in a humble -little fisherman’s boat. It was in the twilight of an April -day. Nobody seemed to have noticed him up in the big, -grey, log house. The island looked completely deserted. -Peter took the opportunity of looking round a little. -Neglect and waste struck him like a cold blast. Broken -down fences, unploughed fields, empty cattle sheds, plundered -outhouses with half open doors hanging on a single -hinge. Not a cow or a pig or a hen. He scratched his -chin thoughtfully, but his expression was not of discontent, -on the contrary! “I see, that’s how things are,” he thought, -“I shall escape cheaper than I had thought. Why give a -lot of money to people who can’t look after anything?” -And he mentally lowered his bid for the remainder of Tord’s -shares in Selambshof by several tens of thousand crowns.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That neglect cost Tord Selamb dear.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last Peter struggled up the hill panting, and knocked -at the door; he was greeted by an infernal barking from the -brutes inside.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord had been watching Peter the whole time from the -window, but had not cared to go and meet him. Such is -the custom of the skerries! And then, he did not want to -appear too eager, poor fellow!</p> - -<p class='c009'>The first evening they did not talk business, but they -drank the whiskey Peter had brought. But he broke up -early. He wanted to get up early to shoot duck.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So at dawn they lay out at Kallö skerries, which belonged -to Järnö. In front of them lay the grey sea with smooth -patches to the lea of white drifting ice floes, where the little -waves lapped the point of land and the silly eider decoys -nodded in their wooden way and pretended to be alive. But -<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>here Tord’s horror of business lifted a little. He felt a grim, -fierce kind of excitement. “This is the struggle for life in -all its hellish nakedness,” he thought, not without satisfaction. -“Here I lie in the icy cold on a primitive rock in an -arctic sea and wait for the opportunity to lure and kill.” -Under the open sky with a gun in his hand he felt hardened -and reckless, capable of any struggle. Yes, he even became -intoxicated at the crazy thought that Peter was in some way -in his power out here in the wilderness of Järnö. Where -it was a matter of deceiving himself he could be a poet -right enough, poor Tord!</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter lay there in his greasy old fur coat and peeped -at Tord with his cunning little bear eyes. He appreciated -those little, nervous twitchings which suddenly stiffened into -defiance. “But how mad is he?” thought Peter. “How far -can I go?” He made little frightened delicious guesses, -and he felt much easier in the region of his pocketbook.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then a flight of ducks approached from the south. It -looked at first like a dark, billowing ribbon against a low, -bright rift in a cloud. Then it quickly became a stormy, -vibrating wave. The wind held its breath before this space-devouring -speed, which made sea and sky shrink. The -living wave swung around in a curve towards the decoys. -A confusion of wings beat the air to froth around their -heavy bodies. The ducks did not seem to want to descend. -All the same Tord had time to let go his two barrels into -the flight. Peter’s gun boomed a little later. His furs -were too heavy for him. The old gardener who lay concealed -with the boat was able to bring in three birds. “Of -course, one can get a shot in when Peter is here,” thought -Tord, with a certain bitterness. The fact was that he had -never had the patience to wait when he was alone. But -Peter loudly praised Tord’s shot and confessed that he himself -had missed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They shot quite a lot of eiders and also longtailed ducks -later on in the day. Peter was lost in admiration. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>warmly praised the fine shooting and the wonders of Järnö -generally. He himself was a heavy-witted, clumsy, impossible -rustic whilst Tord appeared to be a master shot and -a splendid sportsman. And it ended in Tord, under the -influence of the several drinks, indulging in the wildest -bragging of his fierce, free, eagle’s life betwixt sea and cliff.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then they returned home.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dinner was quite festive. Dagmar had, in honour of -the occasion, put on some gaudy silk rags and had powdered -her nose. It was of no importance that her fingers were -sooty. Tord’s excited pride derived new strength from -the burgundy, the brandy, and the whiskey. He clenched -his fists and stalked to and fro between his bear skins and -elk heads in the high resounding hall. The firelight from -the burning logs flickered over his jersey, Lapp shoes and -untrimmed beard. He showed his contempt, with terrible -oaths, of the miserable herds that thronged the streets out -there in the town. He was the lonely, free, scornful ... -superman. He recognized no other relations and friends -than the sea, the wind and infinite space.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter also seemed to be very far from claiming the -honour of relationship. He shrank up in his seat. He -enjoyed doing so before the magnificent Tord. He was -not well, he was dusty, worried, tired. Business worried -him. There was no difficulty in making oneself small if -only one’s pocketbook grew fat in the process.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They did not talk of Tord’s affairs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Three days of constant drinking passed. Then Peter -suddenly got it into his head that he must go back home at -once. He had a great big bill falling due the following -day. He groaned over that bill as he was packing up his -things. He had still not said a word of Tord’s affairs. -“You begin, old man,” he thought.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord stood there with a sick headache and bit his lips. -“Cash! Cash! Cash!” throbbed in his head. It was sickening -to talk money after all his wild, eagle-like boasting. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>caught hold of Peter’s arm in a way that rather resembled -pinching:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, curse you, what about my letter?” he cried. -“What will you give for my shares?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter shrank more than ever, smaller and smaller until -he was like a little grey mouse:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Buy shares? Impossible! These are not the times -... I have no ready money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why the devil did you come here then?” Tord said -brutally.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar went about tidying up with a fur coat on top of -her chemise and her hair down:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What a polite host!” she laughed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, I suppose I’d better clear out at once,” whined -Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>For once Tord said something sensible.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, I will come in with you to talk to Stellan and -Laura about the shares.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter suddenly became very thoughtful. He sat down -at a table and began to calculate in a small greasy notebook:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I might try to renew that bill, and then I could perhaps -help you,” he mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord had an instinctive feeling that his last proposal -had been the best one, and that he ought to talk to his -sisters and brother. But he did not stick to it, so incurably -lazy was he.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, what will you give?” he asked in a voice that was -thick with excitement.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter writhed. He seemed quite in despair.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I might risk about fifty thousand.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord thought it sounded too absurdly little compared -with what he had received before.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Damn you!” he shouted.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter began again with an injured expression to pack -<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>his bag. And Tord asked Dagmar to bring out his town -clothes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Sixty-five thousand,” Peter suddenly ejaculated.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“A hundred thousand!” Tord hissed through the gap in -his teeth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter felt a wild joy. But it was deep, deep-seated. -Not a spark of it came to the surface. He took out his -shapeless pocketbook and slowly counted out seventy-five -notes of a thousand crowns each.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That is all I have with me.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord suddenly closed. Such is the power of cash over -weak minds. And of course he could not know that Peter -had exactly the same amount in his other pocketbook.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But he had scarcely signed Peter’s paper and parted with -his shares when he felt that he had been tricked.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Clear out now, you cheat!” he shouted. “And don’t -come near Järnö again, because if you do you will get a -bullet in your head.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Peter quickly disappeared with the old gardener, -who was to sail him over to the steamer. He calculated -that he had earned about two hundred thousand on this -stroke of business. But it had been too easy. He felt -almost uncomfortable as he sat there huddled up on the -lee side and looked out at the calm April day. Yes, there -was something uncanny in a Selamb having such wretched -ideas of business.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord did not go into town to put his seventy-five thousand -in the bank. He kept them out at Järnö. No signing -of papers, no hanging over a counter. The money -must not link him to the town, the community.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Now I am free,” thought Tord, “absolutely free....” -He went out to devour the living spring. Alone like a -cock he walked about and endeavoured to seek inspiration. -Yes, now the moment had come when Tord Selamb would -become a poet.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>But alas! no notes would come. He had a big grey lump -in his chest that would not melt. His work, his cursed -masterpiece simply oppressed him like a quintessence, a -rude microcosm of his vague conceit. There came cramp, -but nothing else. And it was not easy to go about with that -cramp in the wild teeming life of spring....</p> - -<p class='c009'>May is once and for all not a month for the Selambs.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was already growing summerlike. Tord came to meet -it with staring, feverish eyes and a thin emaciated face. -He began to keep to the sea more and more. It seemed as if -the soil burnt his face.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It had been a long, wet, windy day, but towards evening -the clouds lifted a little and it grew calm. Tord rowed -out over the great shallow bay covered with reeds and -with only a narrow passage out to the big buoy. From -the wet oars and thwarts arose a damp chill. The shores, -already beginning to look mysterious in the twilight, echoed -back the flapping of the cuckoos’ wings. When Tord bent -over the side he could imagine the brown, tangled swamp -of lakeweed down there in the shallow water. But above -him in the cool endless depth of the sky there glowed -a chaos of vanishing cloud, flung out by the storm but -now forgotten and left to the stillness. There were -clouds that had stiffened in every gesture of perplexity, -of terror and of suffering, clouds on the whipping post, -clouds on the rack, clouds that had had the “Swedish -draught.” But all seemed to have died in torture.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Mute immeasurable disruption.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord rested on his oars. He felt it to the very bottom -of his being, this disruption. The cramp suddenly relaxed -within him. He felt a strange, shivering relief. Then he -rowed homewards, but slowly, carefully, as if he were -afraid of breaking everything with his oars. Afraid to -meet anybody, silently as a thief he stole into his house, -crept up to his bed and fell asleep voluptuously tired with -the sky beneath his eyelids.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>At dawn he awoke and at once sat down to write with -this mute, wild disruption still within him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>His poetic rapture lasted for several weeks. It was a -wonderful joy at last to be able to pour it forth, to reveal -himself, to shout out all he felt, to take revenge on all -the thousand impressions that had weighed him down to -earth with their luxuriant wealth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When Tord was not writing he wandered about with -staring eyes and careful, groping steps, as if he were fragile -and afraid to fall to pieces. If Dagmar spoke to him -he told her to shut up, though in an anxious, almost gentle -voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord had already filled a tremendous packet of notepaper -when his imagination suddenly dried up one long, -gloomy, wet day. He sat down to copy it out, but he had -some difficulty in finding the way in the maze of his own -inspiration. What did they really mean, all those strange -figures resembling a barometric curve during a storm or -the seismograph record registering an earthquake? Certain -after-echoes of his inspiration and an infinite reverence -for his own Selambian genius helped him, however, over -the worst. Only here and there a brief humdrum phrase -crept in to make it more intelligible and as a sacrifice to -the philistines.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On an absolutely still, sultry day in July, with distant -thunder in the air, Tord copied out with trembling hand -the last line of his poem. Then he rushed out into the -kitchen and tore Dagmar away from the stove, where she -stood in her chemise and an underskirt with her pipe in -the corner of her mouth, cooking sausage for supper. -He trailed her with him into the bedroom, forced -her into a chair, pulled down the blind, and began to -read.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was unrhymed verse, of course, in the shortest possible -lines, abrupt sentences and inarticulate phrases. A -collection of exclamations, questions, curses, shouts of jubilation, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>all expressive of Tord Selamb’s relation to woman, -the clouds, the sea, the lightning and the eagles.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord read with a hoarse, trembling voice. He seemed -to whisper the most extraordinary secrets of his life with -a wild emotion. And still, had he not, in the presence -of the uninitiated, been seized already at the very first -line by a terrible doubt? Was this ... was this really -poetry? He looked at his wife above the sheets of papers -with the eyes of a beggar, but of a mad beggar beseeching -prostrate adoration.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar responded rather badly to his expectations. At -first she looked a little embarrassed, almost like a child -when its parents speak of something it should not understand. -Then she looked at the door and mumbled:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Pray excuse your slave, but I am afraid the sausages -will be burnt....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Let them burn then, idiot,” shouted Tord. After -which he continued his reading in a more threatening -voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar listened again. She sat quite still and good -for a long while. Then her mouth began to twitch quite -irresistibly, though she looked frightened.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord then hissed out the following lines:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“In a blue flash of lightning</div> - <div class='line in1'>With a blue hissing sound</div> - <div class='line in1'>Creaking</div> - <div class='line in1'>Manly</div> - <div class='line in1'>Zig-zag</div> - <div class='line in1'>I saw it suddenly</div> - <div class='line in1'>The filth</div> - <div class='line in1'>The original filth</div> - <div class='line in1'>In the recesses of your body ...</div> - <div class='line in1'>Damnation</div> - <div class='line in1'>Unclean one!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c003'><span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>“Splendid,” Dagmar snorted. “Thunder and filth!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Whereupon she burst out laughing just as when Tord -came home with his teeth knocked out, a thoughtless irrepressible -feminine laugh, cruel without malice, pitiless -though with no ill-will. But Tord hated her at this moment, -hated her. She laughed! When she ought to have -sunk at his feet, and adored his genius, saved him from -doubt! Oh! the weakling’s dream of power is often far -more intense than that of the strong man. It is not the -bad poets who are the least devoted to their verses. Just -the line that most challenges the ridicule of the world -is often aglow with the most intense passion. Just the -very wretchedness of the form often reflects a seriousness -from which there has been no deliverance. Yes, the bad -poets are the unborn children of emotion. Their sufferings -are cruel. People seem to them empty, blind, perverse, -malevolent. How can anyone laugh at red, flowing blood? -How can anyone help trembling in the presence of a volcano -in eruption?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord ran to the door and tore it open. His eyes shrank -and his beard shook when he looked at his wife:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Get out,” he shouted. “Out with you into the kitchen. -That’s your place!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And Dagmar went, without any such refinement as injured -pride, but with her heart suddenly filled with compassion, -a sort of slovenly, annoyed pity.</p> - -<p class='c009'>For several weeks Tord did not open his mouth. He -strolled about alone along his shores or locked himself -in to file away at his verse. His ambition soon discovered -the usual solace for the wounds and doubts of the hermit. -“I am too singular, too wildly original and deep,” he -thought. “They can’t understand me. I must fill out my -voids, if I want any followers. I must soften down, moderate -and chasten my verse.” So he sat down with intense suffering -to convert his poems to a more human note: a process -<span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>which really consisted in his striking out a few oaths and -putting in a few “ands” and “buts” instead of a simple -comma.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he sent in his revised work to a publisher in -Stockholm, this time taking good care not to read anything -to Dagmar. He had to wait a long time for a reply. Already -after the first week he sailed across to the store for -his post. Then he went every second day. As it was a -long way, he spent most of his time with the tiller in his -hand. In the end he did not trouble to sail home, but -stayed away in the harbour. And it was as if the store -had become his home.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Poor Tord! So little was his proud self-sufficiency -worth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last one day the storekeeper flung a parcel to him. -It contained Tord’s poems. They had been returned. -Pale and trembling with fury he staggered down to his -boat. He did not sail directly home, but roamed about -for several days among the skerries, calling the elements -to witness the shocking injustice he had suffered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But at last he had to return to his home on the cliff, -which he saw wherever he sailed. His hatred began to -long for her, the woman. He must have somebody to -vent his spleen on.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was something dark, startling and fierce in his -face when he stepped into the hall, without a greeting, -and flung himself down on one of the benches in the wall. -He could not even wait for an excuse for a quarrel. Dagmar -only needed to ask him where he had been so long -when he poured a torrent of abuse and accusations over -her. She was a stupid, dirty, greedy animal who couldn’t -help pulling a man down and degrading him. Yes, a short -time ago humanity had been a lot of scoundrels who would -not recognize his greatness, now he was pulled down and -degraded. Suffering knows no logic. He wanted to see -her suffer and groan and hate as he himself suffered and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span>groaned and hated. But alas! already long ago during -the loneliness of the cold winter’s evenings he had dulled -the effect of hard words. Dagmar did not even trouble -to get angry:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Poor boy, so they have been returned,” she muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he rushed up and struck her with his clenched -fist on her soft breast so that she fell to the floor. And -with her cry in his ears he rushed out and sat down in -a crack in the hillside. He stared into the gloomy darkness -that lay so close to his eyes and blended the sea and -sky to a lifeless mass. His hand shuddered after having -struck something too soft. But his outburst had not -brought him any relief. It was himself he had struck, -himself he had hated because he was not capable of doing -what he wanted to; because he had not the liberating sense -of form; because he was closed off from the great brotherhood -of souls. But his was a selfish self-hatred without -any spirit of resignation or reconciliation. There was -not a trace of self-conquest. And until he has overcome -himself a Selamb does not become a poet.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Now Tord sat mostly indoors absorbed in zoology. If -he sometimes went out shooting or fishing he locked up -the oars and the sails of the boats he was not using himself. -He was afraid of finding the house empty on his -return.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Already in early childhood Tord had turned to animals. -There was something of the timid idleness of the savage -in him. He was too lazy for most people. Perhaps already -then he felt a sentimental attraction to dumb animals, -which was natural in one who himself lacked the power -of expression. Now he fled to them again—in protest. -That was his attitude towards a coarse, degenerate humanity, -which did not understand how to appreciate him. -No! crows and common snakes are better! But Tord’s -new devotion to animals was without any sentimentality. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>He enjoyed seeing them pursue and hurt each other. He -hunted them and killed them himself without hesitation. -And he studied them—scientifically, as he liked to imagine—in -thick folios and with knife and microscope.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was a cool and sweet-smelling evening in spring. -Tord stood in a clearing in the open copse and waited -for a flight of woodcocks. The leaves were nicely wrinkled -like the fingers of a newborn babe and shimmered reddish -brown in the level sunlight. But Tord bit his lips together -and did not suffer as he did before in the spring. His -gun was his salvation. Now they were coming, flying low -over the treetops: “rrrt! rrrt! pisp!” It was the mating -call, the love flight of the male. Tord threw up his gun -and the warm body of the bird fell down among the tree -trunks. He hurried home, eager to examine his bag. The -little bird’s heart still beat when he plunged the knife -into it, its fibres still trembled beneath the glass of the -microscope.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was a knife in the heart of the spring. There was -<i>revenge</i> in this Selambian thirst of knowledge.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>But soon Tord’s interest was caught in a quite special -way by a branch of the animal world that he had hitherto -overlooked—insects. He became in his own way a passionate -entomologist.</p> - -<p class='c009'>To Tord the study of insects was that of a diabolical -collection of caricatures. Here life and nature unveiled -their whole cruelty and amorality. On most parts of the -surface of the earth the spread of humanity has swept -away the most gorgeous forms of wildness and cruelty. -The larger animals seem on the whole rather tame. But -the little animals of the soil and the air our civilization -has, for the most part, proudly passed over. Here theft, -parasitism, poison-murder, crude cannibalism, and the most -terrible perversity still rage without check. Tord learnt -to observe and enjoy the jaws of the lion-ant in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>treacherous sandpit, the graceful poisonous thrust of the -hymenoptera, the erratic frenzy of the golden beetle, the -horrible life of the burning beetle amidst putrefaction, -the devouring by the female cross spider of the male after -impregnation. Yes, this was a lovely Lilliputian world. -The devilish struggle for existence at first seemed to him -a parody on this miniature scale. But as he penetrated -deeper into his mysteries the elements of parody disappeared -and only horror was left. The little animal males -grew in his eyes to gigantic creatures, still more horrible -because of the glistening stiffness of the cutaneous skeleton -that made them resemble living machines. They peopled -his dreams with horrible sights. They laid their parasitical -larvæ in the intestines of his thoughts. They became -the pretext and symbol of his new philosophy of -life....</p> - -<p class='c009'>In this way Tord Selamb soon fell into black naturalism. -He overlooked the fact that if, as he supposed, everything -was nature, this must also apply to our human reaction -against nature’s cruelty. And that therefore nature contained -within herself the correction of this evil. Horror -itself is in the last resort a promise. There is a profound -contradiction. But these are not Selambian truths.</p> - -<p class='c009'>What lies behind the Selambian egoism is the “blind -spot,” the blind spot of the soul. They are simply insensitive -to rays from certain directions.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During his studies of insect life Tord had a special favourite. -That was the praying cricket, Nature’s most exquisite -wonder. With her, his brooding spirit celebrated -its gloomy mass. One dark, sultry August evening he fell -a victim to her charm in old Henri Fabre, the Homer of -insects. Round the lamp there was a restless buzzing of -Daddy-Longlegs and grey night-moths that seemed to be -made of dust. He watched them, with a mixed feeling -of voluptuousness and sickness, blind themselves and burn -themselves on the hot lamp funnel. And then he read -<span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span>about the praying cricket, and how with crossed front legs -and lifted head she seems to assume a pious attitude of -prayer beneath the nun’s veil of folded wings. But as -soon as a victim approaches she unveils herself. Then -she resembles a vampire, a flying dragon. Then the scissors -of her crossed legs open, she seizes a victim, much -bigger than she herself, and devours it as quickly as lightning. -Of course, she also seizes the opportunity of devouring -the male after mating. But—this is the exquisite point—it -has also been noticed how, during the very act of -copulation, she turns backwards and begins to devour the -male’s head. Yes, she positively devours him whilst the -hind part of his body continues to fulfil the function of -sex, till her greed has reached the most vital organs....</p> - -<p class='c009'>When Tord had come so far, he rose vehemently and -rushed in to Dagmar. His face was pale and wet with -perspiration and a mingled expression of disgust and triumph. -And without any preliminaries he flung the love -story of the praying cricket in the face of his wife:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do you hear, woman, she eats the male’s head? But -he goes on all the same, just goes on! Say, then, if love -is not stronger than death!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar did not answer. She did not bother to understand -what he was saying. She did not care a straw for -his praying cricket. But she was frightened at his tone. -Yes, from that moment she felt a kind of terror of Tord -Selamb and of life out at Järnö.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span> - <h2 class='c005'>VI<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>THE GREAT DINNER</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>Leaning against the polished black marble counter in -a magnificent new bank was standing a thin slightly -grey gentleman with a rigid haughty face. He was -rather pale, and in spite of the summer heat was dressed -in a closely buttoned-up dark frock-coat. He was Stellan -Selamb, ex-Captain of the Göta Guards, now landed proprietor. -He had suffered since his long shooting expedition in -Africa from the after effects of a malarial fever which -made him sensitive to chill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan wore mourning crepe round his arm. His father-in-law -had moved down to the aristocracy in the sepulchral -vault at Trefvinge half a year ago, not without having -first immortalized his memory by a donation to the House -of Nobles and in this way gaining posthumous admittance.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had arranged to meet Laura at the bank. He -felt quite comfortable in banks nowadays, since he no -longer had any bills to meet on their due date. He had -waited more than a quarter of an hour without showing -any special signs of impatience. He enjoyed the quiet -hum, the hushed murmur of voices, as in a temple. And -indeed the big vaulted hall supported on its massive polished -stone pillars was like a temple above his shining -silk hat. Behind the counter the bank clerks solemnly -officiated at the high altar of capital, to the accompaniment -of rustling bank-notes, ringing coins and the rattling -of the calculating machines that reminded you of eternally -revolving prayer wheels.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span>It was a temple raised to the real State religion. Above -its high copper doors there ought to have stood in thin -gold letters the one great word: “Possess!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here in the bank Stellan almost seemed to grow reconciled -to the thought of his new brother-in-law. At first -he had felt a pronounced discomfort when the news of -Laura’s marriage in Petersburg suddenly tumbled down -on him at Trefvinge. Her husband, Count Alexis von -Borgk, was a Finnish senator of the Bobrikov régime and -was a very well-known instrument of Tzarism in Finland. -And Laura had written that they meant to move over to -Sweden. Stellan did not need to see his wife screw up -her face to feel anxious concerning the reception of the -couple in society.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Count von Borgk was rich, very rich, it was said. -And here in the bank Stellan felt, as I said before, a little -calmer.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last Laura appeared through the swingdoors, smiling -light-heartedly, just pleasantly plump, perhaps a shade -more blonde than before. She was dressed in white, dazzling -white, from the silk ribbon in her hat to the tips -of her shoes below the rich folds of her skirt.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning, Laura dear! Congratulations. It was -a surprise!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“For me too,” said Laura and smiled her most innocent -smile. “I had positively no idea I was going to get -married. But why does Your Highness give audience here -and not at Trefvinge?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, I wanted to meet you alone the first time.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I see—and Elvira detests banks, doesn’t she...?” -Laura looked round and turned up her nose a little: “Well, -so here we are back in this gossipping hole. And I who -felt so happy in Petersburg! Asia, that’s the place for -me!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan blinked his eyes somewhat nervously:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>“Why did you not stay in—Asia, then, my dear Laura?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I can understand that it would have saved Elvira some -worry. But Alexis has altogether withdrawn from politics. -And he does not feel at home in either Finland or -Russia. He is just selling his estates there. ‘I have saved -them from one revolution,’ he says, ‘but I should not succeed -in the next.’ He longs for the peace of Sweden. -It was the last negotiations that unexpectedly detained -him. He is coming next week....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The bank began to fill up with people. Stellan proposed -that they should go down into the safe deposit -where he had some papers to look through.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was quiet and cool down in the crypt of the Mammon -temple. The electric lights hung more heavily and more -motionless there than anywhere else in this catacomb of -wealth, where deeds of mortgages, receipts and share certificates -slept their sleep in hundreds and hundreds of -polished steel boxes in the walls, and where there were -discreet and comfortable little compartments for the devotions -of the worshippers.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sister and brother sat down in one compartment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“So this is your refuge nowadays,” said Laura. “Well, -but what about your Aeronautic Society and your ballooning? -I have looked in the papers but have never seen -your name.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, I have given it up.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, it is easier to go up with a hundred thousand in -debts than with double the amount in income. But you -still gamble in this little town, I suppose?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan shrugged his shoulders:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I’ve given that up, too,” he muttered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But what in God’s name do you do then?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I cut off coupons and look after my malaria. But -it was not of me we were speaking, but of you. Where -do you intend to settle?”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>“Well, not in the country, that is certain,” exclaimed -Laura, and one could see in her face that this point had -been the subject of discussions.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“So your husband wants to settle on an estate.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, he imagines he does.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What if you should make a compromise and take -Selambshof.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Selambshof! That dismal old place! Are you mad?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why not? The big house stands quite unoccupied. -Repaired and restored it might make a splendid home. -And then it would be useful to keep an eye on Peter. He -is getting too awful. There are always stories about him -in the papers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura looked at her brother coldly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The master of Trefvinge is afraid of the papers. And -so he wants to put me in as a lovely guardian for Peter.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan lowered his voice:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There are other reasons too. Peter is, as a matter -of fact, beginning to go down hill. He is yellow and -flabby in the face and he doesn’t take care of himself. -If I am not mistaken something may soon happen. We -have great interests to guard.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura suddenly became thoughtful. She swung the -gold knob of her white sunshade and looked as if she -were making calculations. She always did this when she -was serious.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had got his papers and the steel lid of his safe -closed with a bang:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You needn’t say anything definite now,” he said. “I -will arrange a family dinner out there when your husband -comes. My man will have to clean up a little, as best -he can. And on a fine summer evening Selambshof doesn’t -look so bad.... Well, we shall see.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura nodded silently. As a matter of fact over there -in the East she had boasted a little of her social relations. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>Count von Borgk had perhaps partly married her in order -to be introduced to the aristocratic circles of Sweden. And -that is why she wanted Selambshof to appear as attractive -as possible.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They left the vault.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Up in the bank they met Levy with a black portfolio -under his arm and surrounded by a crowd of business -friends. He was pale, handsome, and still wore his old -exquisitely ironical expression. He hurried up and bowed -to Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Congratulations, Countess von Borgk! Is it true what -people say, that you won your husband at roulette?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy was his old self.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura tapped him on the shoulders with her sunshade -and laughed unconcernedly. But Stellan looked stiffly -after the Jew as he disappeared in eager discussion with -his company.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sister and brother stopped for a moment at the corner -before they said good-bye:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That fellow Levy is making up to Hedvig, I think,” -Stellan mumbled. “The winding-up of the estate took -an enormous time. They say he still appears out there -at Lidingön.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a malicious flash in Laura’s eyes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hedvig? Poor fellow!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It would not be exactly pleasant to have Levy in the -family, don’t you think so?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura stood there in shining white and without a trace -of a flush.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No ... perhaps not....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It would be best to give Hedvig a hint—tactfully—that -Levy is—second hand....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Nonsense, just frighten her and tell her that Levy wants -her money. That will have more effect!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then they separated.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>“Ugh,” Laura mumbled as she walked about in the -sunshine outside the Grand Hotel, “ugh, how moral Stellan -has grown.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>From which you can see that everything is relative in -this world.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stalked home from his tailor. It was Stellan who -had forced him to order a new suit of evening clothes -for the family dinner.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had at first obstinately refused. It seemed to him -a matter of honour not to betray his greasy old evening -coat. Not till Stellan had promised to pay the bill did -he give in.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Tell the tailor you have won the suit as a bet,” Stellan -hissed out. “It is unnecessary to show people what a -mean beggar you are!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter took his revenge by ordering the most expensive -things he could get hold of.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was walking homewards one sultry August night, -yellow in the face, bent and heavy. His head, which had -always been a little askew, had sunk between his shoulders. -He walked on the edge of the foot path, staring at the -paving stones, and carefully avoided stepping on the joints, -so that sometimes he took gigantic steps and sometimes -proceeded with a ridiculous strut. It was always so when -Peter went pondering over business.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Twice he stole into small bars and had a glass. The -further he came out towards the suburb—his suburb—the -more slowly he walked. He stopped at a row of houses -that were being built in a blocked up suburban street -that was under repair and from which you could see the -tops of the masts in the Ekbacken shipyard away in the -background. These houses lay silent and deserted. Their -uneven brick walls glowed in the last rays of the sun high -up above the chasm of the street. But in the empty -window-holes the heavy twilight floated and he visualized -<span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>all the struggles and mean worries that would soon be -housed there. Peter stood in the raw chilly draught from -the gaps in the walls and thoughtfully stirred a big trough -of mortar with his stick. His expression was at the same -time one of disapproval and contempt. “Don’t build,” he -muttered, “don’t build! Buy from those who have built -beyond their means. Houses are worst for those who -have them first. Quite different from girls, ha, ha! But -then they are good, damned good. No shares and such -rubbish for me. What is it they say about a thief? Yes, -he is one who has not had time to promote a company, ha, -ha! No, land and bricks are better. Both real bricks -and those that have engraved on them ‘robur et securitas.’”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After this monologue Peter stalked on in the twilight. -He then came to a rather wild and queer patch of stony -ground which most resembled the scene of a devastating -battle. It was here that the country and town skirmished -with each other on a battlefield that was never cleared, -full of blown-up rocks, rubbish heaps, bottomless fragments -of road and fields brown and intersected with a -deep trench. The town had pushed forward its apparatus -of siege: stone-cutters’ sheds, metal-crushers and dynamite -boxes. The country obstinately defended its retreat by guerilla -troops of creeping nettles and dock leaves, whilst one -or two dried-up dusty pines represented the remnants of -the main army in retreat.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And over it all whirled the crows, the ravens of the -battlefield.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Peter was the marauder in this war. From each -onward push of the town he would creep home with fresh -booty of war. He strolled among the rubbish and interposed -his coarse signature between those of the buyer and -seller. And woe to him who had ventured too far in the -heat of the moment. They were his victims at once.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter struggled panting up a mountain of road metal. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span>He stood up dark against the red evening sky, a grinning -and spying evil spirit on a pedestal of millions of broken -fragments of stones. He looked out over the masses of -houses of the town. They were enveloped in smoke, -smouldering like a weary brain after a long working day. -The very air around them seem used up and tired. Yes, -there the stupid town lay and sweated and converted Peter’s -rocks into gold. It paid dearly for its work. And still -there was no gratitude in his glance as he looked down -upon it from the macadam mountain, but rather something -resembling inveterate distrust and aversion. The town, -the community, and the public were there to be cheated -and that was all. This was the doom pronounced on the -honest old granite rocks and it made them less safe, less -suited for human habitation.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Peter turned on his heel and glanced at his own -domains. Then he saw the grey ribbon of a new road -stretched past red fences and high piles of wood, long -and straight as an arrow it stretched with neat, well measured -plots of building land on either side. Yes, it was -like following the columns of a cash book with safe entries -and solid credits. All the way to the big sandpit all -was well. But there Majängen began, Peter’s sore spot. -He fell in his own estimation as half involuntarily he -stared at that miserable agglomeration of cottages above -which even the sunset glow seemed sullied and decayed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was afraid of Majängen. For several years he -had not dared to set foot there. And his fear was shared -by all his neighbours and, as a matter of fact, by the whole -town. Yes, Majängen was a name of terror. Peter’s own -policy had long ago driven away all decent, honest people, -and now only the worst rabble lived there. In the twilight -they swarmed out of their holes, the Majängen roughs, -thin, pale, with their hands deep in the pockets of their -wide trousers and caps pulled down over their eyes. They -had a new style. Their slang and their types quickly took -<span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span>possession of the comic papers, so that Peter and his like -soon began to talk the simple but expressive language of -their mortal enemies.</p> - -<p class='c009'>These youths conducted a bitter war against Selambshof. -They pulled down fences, broke windows, trampled on -garden beds. Their numerous thefts testified to their activity, -against which he tried in vain to defend himself -with fierce dogs and barbed wire. Safe in their immunity -from punishment and intoxicated with their success, the -hooligans of Majängen extended their raids to the outskirts -of the town, where epidemics of theft and brawling broke -out. But it was not enough that hooliganism, prostitution, -theft, damage to property and brawls issued from Majängen -as from an open sore, worst of all were the epidemics. -Diphtheria, scarlet fever and typhus succeeded each other -out there in the cottages and were a constant menace both -to Selambshof and to the town. These were Peter’s epidemics. -There were no drains, and in his greed he had not -given a hand’s breadth of land to those who wanted to -supply water and light to the community. It was a terrible -blunder that was to become both costly and dangerous -both to him and to the town. Now in the dog days there -raged again a terrible typhus epidemic which had caused -the loss of several human lives in the immediate neighbourhood -of Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter crawled down from the heap of road metal as if -the very sight of the seat of plague were dangerous. As -usual, he returned by way of Ekbacken.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Slowly he walked past the fine house, where old Hermansson -had lived, and which was now used as a public-house -and for working men’s tenements. Down in the shipyard -he stopped below an old ghost of a brig that raised -its blackened rigging towards the empty space above and -whose riven sides disclosed serious rot. Here, as usual, -his temper improved. Why did Peter really like to walk -about among the tarred shavings or to sit and ponder over -<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span>the rough weathered logs on the stack? Why did he continue -this business, which, even if it did not quite run at -a loss, was still of no importance? Did he perhaps after -all enjoy the shadow of honest and productive work that -lifted its languishing head here on his fine shore property—which -increased in value from year to year? Or did he -keep the yard going from a pious memory of Herman and -his first good stroke of business?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then he came down to the pier, the long rotting, shaking, -pier which still, as if by miracle, held together. Out there -on the seat two figures were visible against the dark smooth -water, one bent and huddled up and the other thin like a -boy, with straight back. One was, of course, Lundbom, -the old fixture Lundbom, who was still able to keep the -books. But the other? It was funny how he reminded -you of poor old Herman! But it must be Georg, Laura’s -Georg! It was not the first time Peter had seen the tall -lad wandering about here on the quay, talking to the workmen -and old Lundbom. “Let me see,” thought Peter, “what -if the fellow is planning some trouble for Laura.” And -this thought brought him a certain satisfaction. For his -own part he did not feel any remorse or the least unpleasantness -at the sight of Georg out here. It simply did not -occur to him that he had once wronged his father. He -thought rather with a certain phantom-like return of sentimentality -of the twenty thousand that Herman had with -him when he left. “Well, yes, I saved the slam for him -anyhow, I saved the slam.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Of Herman’s fate in America he had during all these -years never heard a sound, he did not even know if he was -alive....</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last Peter reached the avenue leading up to Selambshof. -He now walked slowly and half reluctantly. The -evenings had grown very long in the bailiff’s wing. And -he did not dare to call in the coachman now when Stellan’s -cursed butler was there in the main building....</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span>It was very dark under the dense old elms. Just over -his head Peter saw a narrow strip of sky and some faint, -twinkling stars. Then he heard steps and whispers in the -garden. Holding his stick tight and feeling quite revived, -he crept behind a scraggy tree trunk.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The old fence creaked and suddenly several boys came -jumping over the ditch beside Peter. He got hold of the -nearest whilst the others disappeared quick as lightning -in the dark. Aha! Apple thieves! The boy had his -pockets full of unripe fruit.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Damned rascal!” roared Peter. “You damned rascal! -I’ll give you something for stealing.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And he struck the writhing figure with his rough -stick.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A long, terrible, shrill scream rent the close air. And -then Peter suddenly felt the pain of a bite in his arm. He -did not let go, but puffing and blowing he dragged the boy -with him into the office, where he locked the door and lit -the lamp.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Here nobody will hear if you yell,” he mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But when Peter came up to the boy again with the stick, -he was startled at something in his pale dirty face, distorted -with crying:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Where do you come from?” he mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Majängen.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Who are your parents?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Mother washes....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What’s her name?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Frida Öberg!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the boy suddenly stopped sobbing and stared Peter -boldly in the face with an impudent, horribly precocious -look that seemed to indicate that he knew all.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had the sensation of horrid nakedness, of bare -shivering flesh. It was as when in a nightmare you suddenly -find you have forgotten your trousers. But at the -same time he was afraid to betray himself by a hint of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>weakness. So he seized the boy firmly by the ear and led -him to the door:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t ever steal apples again,” he muttered. “It’s ugly -to steal. I won’t thrash you any more this time.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Quick as a flash the boy disappeared from his grip and -was swallowed up in the shadows of the trees. But from -the thick silent darkness Peter at once heard a shrill, sharp -voice, mad with fury but at the same time pitiful and terrible:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You damned carcase. I’ll pay you out for that, you -damned old carcase!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter closed the shutters. He had long ago had shutters -put up. Then he sat down under the lamp and examined -the bite in his arm. And he was frightened, frightened as -a mouse, of infection from Majängen.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Then the day of the great family dinner arrived.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Between resplendent footmen the carriages and the motor -cars drove up over the newly-weeded and freshly-raked -sand-covered ground in front of the house. For many -reasons they had avoided the daylight and chosen the twilight, -which concealed the worst neglect.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had received strict orders to behave decently. He -stood in the hall underneath an improvised decoration of -antelopes’ heads and negro weapons—trophies from Stellan’s -African shooting trip—and received the guests. In -his new evening dress he felt like a foot that has gone to -sleep in a tight boot. He had pins and needles in his whole -body. The thought that he would eat and drink as much -as he liked quite free of charge could not overcome his fear -of Count von Borgk, whom after all these magnificent preparations -he imagined to be some sort of wonderful superman, -so covered with orders that any other poor devil would -feel quite naked in the region of the left lapel. But Peter -calmed down when the newly married couple arrived at -last and the Count proved to be a gentleman whom Laura -<span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span>could have hidden away in her décolletage. Yes, he was -a little dark gentleman with soft eyes, that avoided looking -into other people’s eyes, and with an expression round the -mouth that was both suffering and sensual. He had thin, -hairy hands which seemed to melt away when you shook -hands. He spoke a low, sing-song Finnish-Swedish with -a certain admixture of Slavonic softness and suppleness. -And his dress coat was bare, quite bare over his -heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was strange to think that this was the hated and feared -Count Alexis von Borgk, accused by exiled Finns of a -perverse betrayal of his country and of coarse political -sadism. Was he one of those neurasthenics of authority -who are only able to breathe amid the cold momentous -gusts of world politics? Was he one of those -strange heraldic beings who are irresistibly attracted by -the austere magnificence of a throne; who are linked -to the forces of reaction by emblems and ceremonies? Or -was he perhaps a weak dreamer who had fallen a victim to -the mystery of panslavism and who had nothing but the -grey spleen left for anything so mean as a Grand Duchy -with a few million souls? Anyhow he was now a man who -could no longer retain the post he had chosen, but had -retired, having all the same suffered and sacrificed something. -A son by a previous marriage with a Russian had -fallen in the Russian-Japanese war just after he had been -commissioned lieutenant.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Laura was not in the least affected by this. She took -her husband playfully. The Countess had really escaped -from the skirmishes of life with surprising ease. Her smile -had kept its impertinent freshness. She still continued -to look as if she had just got out of bed, and had a little -of the warmth of the bed left. And her skin was in some -strange way more naked than that of other ladies. This -evening a lot of jewellery with some cold green stones -shimmered on it, but no pearls. Pearls did not suit her, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span>she thought. Did she perhaps realize that their soft roundness -and mellow sheen are symbols of quite a different -sort of womanliness?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Among those who did not know her, Laura always created -a sensation by having Georg with her. They had not seen -him for years and had almost forgotten his existence. And -now he suddenly appeared on the scene, a tall, well grown -lad of sixteen, dressed up in his first dress shirt and dress -coat and still quite shy and confused by this unexpected -promotion after years of oblivion and neglect. He was -really very like his father, Georg, so like that one -was almost startled. There was something open, honest, -straight-backed, that the Selambs regarded as stupidity, -but with a new admixture of grit and determination that -made all except Laura think. She seemed to be merely -content with her new possession. Imagine that that overgrown -schoolboy in his ridiculous knickers and worn -sailor’s blouse should turn out so presentable. Yes, these -last days Georg had been paraded, introduced, boasted of, -and spoilt. She went with him everywhere just as in the -recklessness of love you would show off a new lover. Perhaps -it may, as a matter of fact, have been a whimsical -motherly falling in love. Perhaps something reserved, -even hostile in her son had awakened her feminine desire -for conquest. Or was it only secret anxiety born of the -glance of shy, uncomprehending fear that Georg first cast -upon his new stepfather?</p> - -<p class='c009'>They went in to dinner.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan and his butler had really worked marvels. The -shabby old dining-room at Selambshof was impossible to -recognize, thanks to a soft wine-red carpet, expensive -sconces, handsome high backed chairs, exquisite table silver, -and plenty of white orchids.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But it looked all the same as if it was going to be a silent -dinner. They were mute after the first nervous talk. They -stared at the batteries of untouched glasses in front of each -<span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span>chair as if they signified a troublesome journey with many -hardships. Mrs. Elvira sat cool and thin in her armour -of jet and black silk and breathed reserve from every fibre -of her body. And Hedvig Hill seemed a monument of -silence. Words seemed to shrink and freeze away in her -neighbourhood. Everybody seemed to be afraid of the -wine going down the wrong throat after Peter’s awkward -speech of welcome during the soup. All except Laura. -She continued, apparently unconcerned and gay, her little -flirtation with Georg.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Your health, Georg dear!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg drank to her attentively and obediently, carefully -sipping his glass:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Put a white orchid in your buttonhole.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg obeyed again. Laura threw a kiss to him: “Just -look how sweet the boy looks!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg grew purple in the face and looked at his plate. -Laura clapped her hands:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“And he blushes like a little girl!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Count Alexis followed this flirtation with languid eyes -and a little tired smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, that is something our good Georg has not inherited -from you.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Evidently the Count had no illusions.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then there was a new silence, only interrupted by the -almost inimical ringing of glasses and knives. But Laura -did not give in. She looked about her with bright defiant -eyes. Then she suddenly turned to Hedvig and began to -talk of Levy. It was really deliciously impudent of her -to start just that topic. Laura teased Hedvig a little about -her lawyer, warned her in playful phrases against his business -genius and then said a few malevolent little truths -about Jews in general.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You see Alexis is an anti-Semite and I’ve caught it from -him,” she ended up with a soft smile.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig answered nothing. She only turned white in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span>face. Even her perfect bare shoulders grew whiter and -seemed to radiate a chill through the dark velvet of her -dress. But her black eyes stared with a shy irresolute -hatred into her sister’s restless eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was afraid lest Hedvig should suddenly tell Laura -some awful truth; he was so afraid that his glass jingled -against the plate as he raised it. But Laura had already -noticed a haughty expression of disgust on Elvira’s face -and turned at once to her sister-in-law. She began innocently -far far away in Africa, on the Nile, during Stellan’s -and Elvira’s famous wedding trip. From there she went -over to the little panther cubs that they had brought home -and which she had seen during her call at Trefvinge. Yes, -they were too sweet, those little panther cubs, though she -for her own part would never have dared to take them in -her arms and play with them now that they had grown so -big. But Elvira had been like a mother to them from the -beginning. It was really delightful to see her with her -little twins, so one could imagine worse results from a -wedding trip....</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was one for Elvira. If Laura had torn off her -clothes and pointed at the scars after the operation knife -it could not have been more obvious. But the lady of Trefvinge -Castle did not move a muscle. She only muttered -quite low—so low that only those nearest to her could -hear:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My dear Laura, now you have stayed long enough in -Africa. It would perhaps be good for you to think of a -cooler place—say Siberia for instance.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura did not trouble to catch the whisper. After her -last bravado she settled down and seemed determined to -be bored too.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Count Alexis seemed absent-minded during the last part -of the conversation. Now his soft and musical voice was -heard:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span>“I wonder if I might have some water.... No thank -you, not soda,—ordinary water....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Ordinary water?” grunted Peter, suddenly quite -amazed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, thank you, if you have spring water.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, certainly, ha, ha. There is certainly spring water!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan sent one of the servants for a jug of fresh water, -straight from the well.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The Count filled a champagne glass, sipped it a little and -leant slightly back with half-closed eyes:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Water is so pleasant,” he mumbled. “It taste of nothing, -absolutely nothing.... And everything is so calm in -Sweden. You shoot so surprisingly seldom indoors or in -the streets. It is like a sanatorium. And all the ladies -look like nurses, charming nurses—except Laura of -course....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Count Alexis’ glance fell upon Old Enoch, who -hung over the green sofa opposite him. He started as if -a real live person had suddenly stood up, as if there were -a hitherto unnoticed guest in the room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Whom does this excellent portrait represent?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is our grandfather,” Stellan hastened to answer. -“Enoch Selamb, a landed proprietor. He was a clever -agriculturist in his day.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The time was past when Stellan indulged in any playful -truths about his ancestors.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had already in secret found time to drink a good -deal, and looked somewhat bloated.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He was a damned rascal,” he cut in contentedly, “a real -old rascal. You couldn’t cheat him....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He stopped when Stellan trampled on his feet and turned -back to his bird and his wine. But Laura skittishly made -the sign of the cross before her ancestor.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Old Enoch is our patron saint,” she explained to her -husband. “He ought always to have a candle burning -<span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span>before his picture—as before an ikon. Thanks to him -no Selamb can do really bad business.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The Count’s glance travelled searchingly round the table -and then back to the portrait.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hm,” he mumbled, “one can see the likeness.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was a pause again and everybody felt old Enoch’s -looks directed towards him, even those who had their backs -turned to the portrait.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter ate and drank for the whole company. The dress -coat did not pinch him any more. By Jove, he began to -feel at home amongst the guinea-hens and the golden pheasants. -Yes this was not a bad show. “May I be damned -if I ever sat down with so much money before,” he thought, -“Here is Hedvig the Tragedy, who is worth at least three -millions. She is lost in her pile of notes as big as herself, -and there are Stellan and Elvira who are also expensive -creatures, even more expensive than Hedvig, at least five -millions if we count Trefvinge as worth three. And -Laura, the little minx, weighs as much, if it is true that -the Count has sold three big estates in Finland and Esthonia.” -And then there was himself, Peter the Boss ... -with Ekbacken and Kolsnäs and a big slice of Selambshof -and all his building land and houses. He was the worst -of them all, not less than eight millions. And that was -calculating absurdly low, almost as if for income tax returns. -He scarcely dared to confess to himself how much -he owned. And if he added it all together it came to -more than twenty millions. Or perhaps more correctly -thirty. Thirty millions. Peter rolled the figure in his -mouth, chewed it with the fowl, swallowed it with the wine. -Thirty millions, thirty millions....</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was not at all like King Midas. The gold agreed -with him splendidly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But just opposite sat Stellan, thin, straight, scrupulously -elegant, with the set face of the retired gambler. He sat -looking at the row of untouched glasses in front of his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span>wife. All those fine vintages! An exquisite harmony in -colour from the golden green mist over the light sparkling -sunshine of the champagne and the glowing burgundy down -to the heavy brown dash of colour in the Malvoisier! -And all of it untouched, disdained. Oh what sort of a -creature had he bound himself to, thin, cold, fastidious, -sterile, incapable of life! Not even Africa had for a -moment raised her temperature above zero. Even her capricious -love of sport had suddenly been blown away when -she noticed that he had expected something of it. She -seemed nowadays to be exclusively occupied in being bored. -It seemed as if the staff of servants at the Castle had gradually -assumed all her functions of life. Stellan sometimes -felt a sort of fear of her, as of a lingering disease, a dangerous -languor. Yes, the disease of wealth is infectious. -He was already infected. And still he could think of -nothing but collecting more money, and more money. He -was afraid when he thought of anything else than money.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan started. By Jove, they had already reached the -dessert. He absolutely must stand up and make a speech. -But how difficult it was to get out of the chair today! -“Supposing I refuse to tell a lot of lies about Laura and -the damned Russian,” he thought suddenly. “Supposing -instead I rise and propose a toast to—absent friends! To -poor Manne von Strelert who happened to shoot a hole -through his head. And to that decent fellow, Herman -Hermansson, who took a little trip to America. And to -Percy Hill, who died in beauty. And to von Borgk’s -boarders in the Peter-Paul fortress and in Siberia. And -to all the people we have kicked over and climbed up on. -Supposing I raise up Banquo’s ghost! That would be -exciting!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Compassion was not one of Stellan’s frailties. He regretted -nothing, felt no remorse. He only felt stiff, isolated, -frozen, paralysed by melancholy irony. And when -he looked round the silent circles the others seemed to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span>him frozen also. It seemed as if they were all sitting -frozen in a gigantic block of ice, and only imagined that -they could reach each other with their thoughts, words and -gestures. That they breathed and moved was probably -only imagination. Really they were all dead, except Peter. -Nothing affected him. He belonged to those organisms -low down in the scale that can stand any amount of -cold....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, it was a ghost-dinner. The great ghost dinner at -Selambshof. And from the wall old Enoch’s eyes stared, -stared, and stung. “That’s right, my children,” they -seemed to say, “now you are ready. Now I’ve got you. -Now you are inside my magic circle. And none of you -will escape, none....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan felt an emptiness in his head, paralysed, sick. -His glance wandered from one face to the other in the -circle. He scorned them, he saw through them, but still -he begged them for help. “If only I can get up out of -this cursed chair. If only I could get up out of this -cursed chair!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then his wandering glance suddenly fell on Georg. -Georg sat in his corner and looked lost and unhappy. An -honest young face. “Bah, you know nothing yet,” Stellan -thought, shrugging his shoulders. “What is straight will -be crooked, my young friend, and what is warm will grow -cold.” And he felt his lips move in a pitying smile. But -still he could not look away from the boy’s face. It was -as if he had suspected that here was something like a -crack in the wall of ice, a break in the magic circle. Yes, -deep down he felt a strange relief to see him, to notice -his timid protest against his stepfather, his anxious wonder -at his mother, and all reflected in a face that knew -nothing of dissimulation.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last Stellan got up and made his well-balanced -speech to the newly married couple with a certain military -briskness in his delivery.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>After all even lies have nothing but truth to live on. -And even the coldest egoism must in the end draw breath -beside whatever honour and goodness is left in the world. -Otherwise it would die of suffocation....</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Two days after the dinner at Selambshof, Count von -Borgk got typhus and was taken to a nursing home. At -the same time not less than three of the servants on the -estate fell ill, amongst them Peter’s housekeeper.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was in deadly fear, and could think of no other -way out than to sail away immediately from all this misery. -He was already on his way down to his boat—Herman’s old -“Laura,”—which still lay at her buoy in the bay where the -bathing box was. But when he passed the well on the slope -below the terrace, he saw that the cotter pin was not in -its place in the little trap door at the foot of the pump. -Peter lifted the lid of the well and peeped down. It was -a shallow well and was now almost dried up from the long -drought of the dog days. He saw at once that the bottom -was covered with newspapers, dirty rags and unspeakable -filth.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter got up dizzy and sick. “Majängen!” he thought. -“The apple thief! Frida Öberg’s boy. That was what the -Count got for drinking water! That’s what he got for his -sanatorium!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>With a groan and a push of his massive body, Peter -seized the pump and pump-house in a mighty grip and -threw it down so that all might see that the well was -poisoned. Then he fled head over heels down the hill to -his boat and out towards the bays of Lake Mälare.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Count von Borgk’s condition did not at first cause much -anxiety. His temperature was comparatively low and his -strength seemed to hold out.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura felt normal again by and by after her own terror -of infection had passed. She telephoned each day to the -nursing home and sent flowers and little notes.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>But as the time passed she found it more and more -difficult to find anything to write. She began to feel out -of sorts, listless, bitter. She had looked forward to some -pleasant weeks at the seaside and now she had to sit here -and be baked at the Grand Hotel in the midst of the -summer heat and the dead season.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That Count Alexis should immediately fall ill was not -a part of the marriage contract.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura consoled herself as far as possible with Georg. -During her long stay abroad he had been boarded out -in the family of a bank cashier. There he had a tiny -room about as big as a wardrobe, which just held his bed -and school books. The cashier and his wife were cold, -silent, nervous people who made a face if you talked aloud -or banged the door, but who otherwise left Georg completely -alone. Nobody during the last two years had asked -how he was doing at school. But this very forlornness had -awakened in him a defiant ambition that had kept him -up to the mark.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now he moved to his mother at the hotel and they had -their meals in the big dining-room. It was an immense -change. Laura had to force him to help himself to the -fine food. He writhed on his chair and it looked as if -he were eating with a bad conscience.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura stayed in bed late in the mornings. Usually she -heard no sound from Georg until he came home breathless -for lunch. He had been out for a walk, he said. -Laura became curious. One morning she awoke early, -at eight o’clock, and stole into Georg’s room. It was -empty. And he did not return before twelve. When his -mother pressed him with questions, he suddenly looked -her straight in the eyes and answered vehemently that he -had been at Ekbacken....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura smiled a tart little smile and pulled together her -kimono which had opened and showed her silk stockings:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh! are you so mad on boats?” she said.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>The following day whilst Laura still lay in bed the -telephone on her night table rang. It was from the nursing -home. The nurse who spoke sounded very serious. -The Count was worse and incessantly expressed his wish -that the Countess should come to see him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura felt a violent discomfort. She grew cold all over. -The thought of the nursing home made her sick. She -had not yet been there. She was afraid, mortally afraid -of long corridors, temperature curves, the smell of disinfectants, -groans, biers. Every fibre of her body shrank -back from the serious danger of infection and the nearness -of death. But all of a sudden she felt relief, a wonderful -relief. Georg! Yes Georg would probably go! With -trembling fingers she seized the receiver again:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh! nurse, I should like to come. But I can’t, not -today. I am ill in bed myself. I feel most awfully dizzy. -But I will send my son.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After which Laura tied a damp towel round her head -and waited for Georg.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When he came in she lay writhing on her pillows and -really looked rather ill. She caught hold of his hand and -pressed it violently:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Georg dear, they have rung up from the nursing home. -He wants to see me. But I can’t trail myself there. I -feel so awfully bad. Will you go there and give him my -love, tell him how ill I am.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg stood pale, hating the thought of going to the -sick bed of this feared and secretly detested stranger. But -he drew himself up. It did not enter his head to say -“no” on an occasion like this.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After some hours Georg came back. He had not been -able to give any message as the patient was unconscious.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura put no questions about the nursing home, what -the doctor had said, or how the patient looked. She only -heaped her gratitude on Georg and fawned on him like -a dog.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span>She probably felt she might need him again.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The next day the Count was still unconscious and then -Laura ventured to be a little bit better and to get up. -It was boring to stay in bed, and besides she had a superstitious -fear of pretending to be ill—she might really become -ill.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On the whole, she thought extraordinarily little of the -man whose name she bore. It seemed as if his illness had -obliterated all her memories, from the earliest society ones -to the latest exquisitely sensual; it seemed as if it had -made of him a remote half-hostile stranger.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Several days passed. There was no talk of any visit -to the invalid. He could speak to nobody, periods of -unconsciousness interchanged with periods of delirium. -Laura could no longer keep quiet or sit alone. She had -at last made some acquaintances in the hotel, a secretary -of the Danish Legation and a young widow whom she had -met at the seaside. They in their turn had introduced her -to a Russian musician who was passing through. So they -were able to have a little game of bridge up in Laura’s -sitting room in the evening.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How is your husband getting on?” said the lady between -the bids.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, I was there today ... he is much better....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg heard these words through the half open door.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then the telephone in Laura’s bedroom rang. With a -sigh she dropped her cards and went in, carefully closing -the door to the sitting room. The Russian did not play -bridge, but was improvising on the piano.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Once more there was a terrible, pious, insistent voice -on the telephone:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The Count is conscious again. He only mumbles your -name. He must speak to you. He can’t have long to -live. You won’t let him die quite alone....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura’s voice sounded like a cry of distress, half in -despair, half in fury:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span>“Good God ... I ... I told you, nurse, that I was ill -myself ... that I am in bed ... that the doctor has -forbidden me.... But I will try to send somebody....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She rushed in to Georg. She was pale, very much -décolletée, dressed in black rustling silk and covered with -jewels. She did not notice how her son quickly hid a -parcel under the table. She stroked him on his arm and -hand quickly and nervously.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Dear little Georg, you must go to the nursing home -again! Alexis has become worse. I can’t bear to see -him suffer. My nerves are quite exhausted. Yes, it would -quite finish me. I have some friends here but they must -leave, they must leave at once.... I am simply -done....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg turned away. Her perfume enveloped him. As -she bent forward he saw with a shudder her dazzling white -breasts move below her low-cut frock. He suddenly felt -a strange sickening shame that she should be his mother, -that he had sprung from her body. He jumped out of -his chair:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, mamma, you go yourself!” he exclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But she clung to him, moaned, begged, caressed, kissed -him. Yes, in her miserable panic she seemed to have forgotten -that he was her son and she was prepared to employ -all the artifices that a frightened woman can employ -in order to move a man.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg jumped up and pushed her away from him:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Leave me alone!” he said, “I don’t want you to touch -me!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Merely from anxiety and in order to get away from her -he at last rushed out for the second time to the sick -man.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura stood at the table with a rigid smile on her lips. -The danger she had escaped seemed to have numbed every -limb in her body. She pulled her shawl over her bare -shoulders. Her son’s contempt passed like a chill shiver -<span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span>over her skin. Your own flesh and blood! Bah! The boy -was like wax in her hands.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She went into the sitting room. She walked slowly and -carefully. It seemed as if there were something cold, -frail and motionless within her, something that could not -bear a shock.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura excused herself to her guests:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“My husband is worse and I must go to him,” she said, -quietly and solemnly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Appearances must, of course, be saved.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They said good-bye with many regrets and expressions -of sympathy. The young Russian musician had a refined -and a very sensitive face. He meant to kiss his hostess’s -hand but stopped half way and turned a little pale. As he -bent over this beautiful and robust woman’s body it seemed -as if he had suddenly been startled as before something -dead, before the stench of a dead soul.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura hurried to bed, took a sleeping draught and pulled -the bed cover over her head.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>Early the next morning she was awakened by the message -of the death of her husband. She first felt a strange -creepy sensation of relief. Now he would never call for -her again. Now she no longer need go and see him. Now -she could escape the nursing home....</p> - -<p class='c009'>But then she was seized by a bitter ague. Her nerves -at least had not forgotten him. A cold breath chilled certain -of her more intimate memories and the cold bony -fingers of death groped too close to her own spine. It -was like a poisoning of the senses.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura felt so out of sorts and so sick that she quite -believed she was mourning her dead husband and felt -keenly sorry for herself. She dressed in her plainest black -frock and sank down into an easy chair.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then a tall thin man in a black frock coat, carefully -buttoned, and dismal folds on his forehead appeared ghostlike -<span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span>on the scene. He was the undertaker. Laura told -him with a tired, an infinitely tired gesture, and in a few -monosyllables to address himself to her brothers at Selambshof -and Trefvinge. After which the gloomy looking figure -withdrew bowing solemnly.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura sank together. “I am an old woman,” she -thought. “Everything inside me feels so frozen and dead. -I am an old, broken, lonely woman. My life is finished.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then she suddenly thought of Georg. Good God, Georg! -She had forgotten Georg. Of course, she had Georg. She -was not alone. Her life was not finished. She had her -son, a big, handsome, clever, brave boy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A glow of warmth surged once more through Laura’s -veins. A certain remorse for her previous indifference -and neglect stirred inside her. For once she really suspected -something of a mother’s feelings.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She flew into Georg’s room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was empty.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She sat down to wait. She sat on the edge of his bed, -fingering his pillow and his night shirt and got out her -watch every second minute. Never before in her life had -she really waited for any human being.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She called the chambermaid. She inquired of the waiter -and the hall porter. No, nobody had seen the young -gentleman. And still he had been sleeping in his bed, -you could see that.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura worked herself up into a state of nervous, shivering, -whining anxiety. Towards dinner time the hall porter -sent up a letter that had been left by a messenger boy. -It was from Georg and read as follows:—</p> - -<p class='c012'>To my mother,</p> -<p class='c013'>I am writing to say good-bye. We shall not see each -other again. I had not meant to leave like this, but what -happened yesterday was too cowardly. I can’t stay any -longer. I am going to sign on as soon as I get a chance -<span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span>and sail to America to find father. It is no good trying -to find me because I am sixteen years of age and I am -not coming back to you. I know all about how you and -Uncle Peter behaved to father. I know it through old -Lundbom and Sara, who was a maid at Ekbacken. She -is married to a workman in the yard now. Old Lundbom -believed in you at first but he was sorry when he understood -how everything had happened. Two years ago he -received a letter from father that was to be given to me -when I was sixteen. In it is his address and everything. -He is in a big office and has a rather good job, though -it was not so easy at first. He is a noble man, I know -that. It is for his sake I have been working so hard at -school because you have never cared for me before. So -now I am going. All the money I have got from you -is in the right hand drawer of the table, because I don’t -want to use it to run away with. Good-bye now. And -you must forgive me, for I cannot do anything else.</p> - -<p class='c013'>Good-bye!</p> -<div class='c014'>Georg Hermansson.</div> -<p class='c015'><i>P. S.</i></p> -<p class='c013'>If anybody does any harm to old Lundbom because of -this, they will hear from me when I come back!</p> - -<p class='c003'>Laura did not faint after reading this letter. She had -no attack of nerves, made no scene, did not stir up heaven -and earth to get her son back. She only suddenly felt -empty, quite empty. She no longer felt anxious for Georg. -She could not as a matter of fact understand her former -anxiety and eagerness for him.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She washed her face in cold water, powdered it, and -drove out to order mourning clothes.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span> - <h2 class='c005'>VII<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>SHADOW PLAY</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>The spring was early that year. Through the windows -of the renaissance hall of the Hill villa the -May sunshine flowed calm and warm as in June. -But Hedvig, who was walking to and fro, had still retained -her winter complexion. Yes, the tragic beauty of her face -was deathly pale as she took a few steps to and fro like -a prisoner measuring his cell. She seemed slimmer than -ever and was still dressed in black. Like a dark shadow -she glided to and fro, to and fro, across the wine-red sun-bespattered -carpet.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Each time Hedvig came opposite to the little cupboard -on the wall where the telephone was concealed, she stopped -a moment with helplessly hanging hands and a restless, -anxious expression. By and by she approached the spot -more and more frequently and it seemed as if an irresistible -force drew her to the telephone. Then she stretched out -her hand to lift the receiver. But then a door banged in -the region of the kitchen and at once she withdrew her -hand as if it had been burnt, and she resumed her restless -pacing. Then everything was quiet again and Hedvig was -again at the telephone. In a low unsteady voice she asked -for a number. After which her voice with a tremendous -effort rose and became tense, haughty, commanding:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“May I speak to Mr. Levy?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But the tension died away in a disappointed, dissatisfied -tone,</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I see, not in yet....”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span>Hedvig resumed her cell-walking. She mumbled to herself -and looked if possible even paler than before. Incessantly -she looked at the clock in despair that the minutes -passed so slowly through the silent and sunny room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>For the second time Hedvig was drawn to the telephone. -Now at last he had come to the office. The cool relief -suddenly made her voice indifferent, hard, businesslike:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-morning! It is Mrs. Hill speaking. I only -wanted to remind you of those mortgages that were to -be attended to ... those in....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy’s voice answered over the ’phone, stern and assured, -with an imperceptible note of satisfaction:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, of course, the mortgages.... Yes, that will be -all right.... I will come out to dinner, <i>if I may</i>, then -we can talk it over....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was not the first time Levy had invited himself to -dinner at Hill villa. Probably in the correct surmise that -his client would never be able to make up her mind to -do it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig put the receiver down with a shrug of the shoulders, -a wretched false little shrug. She resumed her walking. -You could see how she tried to convince herself -that she was quite cool and indifferent now that her anxiety -lest he should forget the mortgages was over.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Her steps halted suddenly in front of one of the patches -of sunlight on the carpet. It looked as if she dared not -venture out on that red sea of light. It looked as if the -spring sun, which flooded the large silent room in ever -greater volume, had dazzled and paralysed her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Good God! What was she to do before dinner? How -was she to occupy herself the whole of this long pitiless -radiant spring day!</p> - -<p class='c009'>She found no way out but the usual one—to fly to the -shadows. She rang the bell and ordered her car.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Shan’t we begin with the open car soon, Madam?” said -Ohlesson, the chauffeur.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span>“No!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>So the big black covered car ran out to the cemetery. -And then Hedvig sat there on the seat by Percy’s grave, -from which she had not allowed the dry withered funeral -wreaths to be removed. Erect, motionless she sat under -her black sunshade, whilst all around the light May green -sparkled and swayed in the broad stream of sunlight. The -sun appropriated even Hedvig’s black silk cloak and made -it live and shimmer with a thousand colours. But her -face was only lit up by a faint reflection from below, -from the marble of the tomb.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was more than a year and a half since Percy had -died, but lately Hedvig had begun to take refuge here -again. Here she fought her way back to the life of shadows, -a thin life, a continuation of their life in the sanatorium. -Not that she was able to forget even here on -the seat in the cemetery all that consumed her:—money, -business and everything connected with it. No, but she -thought of it with less anxiety. Rather with a solemn and -pious feeling that it was her duty to watch over what her -dear Percy had left behind....</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was something strange about Percy Hill. He -had been a poor invalid, and yet his character had been so -free from any mean fears that even long after his death -his memory acted as a sedative. As Hedvig sat there her -heart filled with quiet gratitude that she had been given -the joy of sacrificing some years of her life to him. She -no longer suffered for having lied to him and cheated him -in his last wish. She had only been the nurse who prevented -her poor patient from injuring himself. Her conscience -closed its eyes to the circumstances attending her -patient’s death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>No, there was no danger in sitting there whispering to -her memory, that sentimental liar. Her egoism was not -frightened of the past, but of the future.</p> - -<p class='c009'>What a challenge to all the powers of the spirit, this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>feeble, mute, half-concealing lie in the midst of the clear -sunshine! It seemed as if the light in sudden anger had -surged around her with increased intensity; had sent a -fresh wave of burning restlessness through her body. She -rose and seemed to grope after the receding shadows. Then -with dazzled, burning eyes she staggered along the cemetery -path. Outside the gate her motor hummed, impatient -to rush her back to all that waited for her ... business -... Levy ... the future...!</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I won’t change,” Hedvig thought in the car. She found -there was something safe, reassuring, in the fact that she -did not intend to put on different clothes. But when she -came home she did so all the same. And she sat long -before the mirror. And then she stood in the window looking -down the road.</p> - -<p class='c009'>At last there came a car and Levy got out.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Taxi,” thought Hedvig, as if she could blunt the point -of a threat with that prosaic reflection. Levy ran quickly -up the stairs. “Jew,” she thought, as if by doing so she -had kept something at bay. But all the same she had to -force herself to walk slowly, really slowly, out into the -hall to receive her guest.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy had brought some yellow roses.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If there were black roses, I should give you them instead,” -he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig forgot the roses on a table in the hall on purpose. -She had a sensation that he flushed up for a moment beneath -his even pallor.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There were primroses and lilac on the dining-table.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Those flowers don’t suit you,” he said with a quick -bitter smile. Then he turned to the maid who was serving: -“Take away those flowers and fetch my roses out of the -hall!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He seemed quite at home.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Levy threw himself into business and made good -progress from the start.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>Levy had made money live for Hedvig, too much so! -At first she had regarded her large fortune as a safe protection -against all the demands and dangers of life. She -sat huddled up in the middle of her gold heap where -nothing could reach her. But Levy had thrown out his -hands:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good God, what money! What a heavy shapeless mass! -What an old, moss-grown stump of a fortune! For twenty -years it has had to take care of itself. For twenty years -not a single experienced hand has touched it. It looks -like a fund for widows and orphans.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You mean that the investments are safe as a rock,” -mumbled Hedvig. “But surely that is a good thing!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, but the interest, Mrs. Hill, the interest! You don’t -get much more than three and a half per cent. and you could -get six. You allow a hundred thousand a year to run -through your fingers. That is to make yourself a laughing -stock to God and man. As an expert I can’t bear to see such -an absurdity. Allow me to make some dispositions for -you. You can submit them for the approval of your -brothers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig worried and pondered long before she said yes. -But the hundred thousand were stronger than her fears. -And thus Levy had lured her into his world, the money-world. -She began by questioning him on all occasions -in a woman’s way, ignorantly, persistently, suspiciously. -And he would reply. He answered not only patiently but -willingly, quickly, ardently, enthusiastically. He explained -the whole economic mechanism of credits, bills, mortgages, -debentures, shares. The whole of this finely balanced -system of suspicion and confidence made a deep impression -on Hedvig. To her over-cautious spirit it seemed like -balancing on the edge of the abyss. His quick purposeful -assurance seemed to her something supernatural, almost -creepy. But she had to hear more and more. Oh, it was -deliciously exciting to hear Levy talk of money. It was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span>only now she began to grasp what money was. And she -felt as if she were in a swing, feeling giddy at the fact of -owning so much.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, Levy’s interest became more and more eager. Hedvig -had already been lured from her gold-heap where she -had enjoyed the twilight. Her money was no longer like -a wall protecting her against the world. No, it was instead -a medium in which she moved about. It formed the thousand -connections, the tentacles and nerves thanks to which -she at once felt what was happening in the town, in the -country, in Europe, in the whole world.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy tore Hedvig with him half way into life, at least -into that kind of life which consists of movement and -business. He showed to her confined and numbed egoism -another kind of egoism that was world-embracing, intensely -awake and technically brilliant. He was the personification -of that egoism. It was something different from -Percy’s laissez-aller and cool, submissive irony. It was -wheels that rolled. It was diamond cut diamond. It was -power, destiny. Hedvig sometimes became quite frightened -at his passionate discourse, frightened as if she had come -out into the strong daylight without a dark corner to which -to retreat. And she no longer had her money to protect -her. It had become his confederate, it betrayed her to -him, it was in love with him. Hedvig had no way out but -to assume a forced reserve, a sudden cold, and sheer rudeness. -But that had no effect on him at all. He was insensitive -to everything which was not logic. Then in her -anxiety she crept behind her dead husband, draped herself -in crêpe, fled to the shadows and became just piety and -memory. That was the only thing that hitherto could -damp Levy’s eagerness. The world-embracing, hot and -cold romance of money shrank up violently and he became -gradually colder and colder, more formal and more ironical, -till at last he said good-bye with a bow that was really -a shrug of the shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>So today Mrs. Hedvig had to assume her crêpe.</p> - -<p class='c009'>During the soup Levy raised the question of the mortgage. -That was a mere nothing, a bagatelle. They would buy -the house by auction, no doubt about that. It would certainly -be good business, because the house was, as it happened, -valued much too high. Other people are frightened -of houses that are assessed too high. But we are not, -Mrs. Hill. For we know of a certain little insurance company -that will take the house with open arms. They need -it on their books. A house that is bought for 200,000 but -can be taken up at 300,000 improves the position at once -by 100,000—not for the shareholders but for the Board -of Directors.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy’s face suddenly became contemptuous and almost -offended. This topic seemed to upset him. It was not -worthy of the occasion or of his feelings:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, that’s that,” he exclaimed. “I am tired of the -house property swindle. That’s for inferior people, philistines -and small fry. I really can’t understand your brother -Peter’s taste. I admit that he has a brutal sort of natural -business shrewdness, but he lives like an old-fashioned -craftsman amidst modern improvements. Before 1905 we -believed that business consisted in cheating each other and -the State. Yes, I believed it too. But that is now old-fashioned, -hopelessly old-fashioned. Nowadays we have at -last grasped the fact that the really lucrative business is -the positive one in which money really makes a contribution.... -That is to say shares, industrial shares! We -live in the age of a most tremendous industrial boom. The -whole world is becoming industrialised. You must be blind -not to see in which direction the royal road of capital leads. -Money and wheels are related. Shares, industrial shares! -Invest your money in forests, waterfalls and iron mines! -Send it to the saw mills, the harbours and the ammunition -works!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Here Levy swallowed the third glass of mineral water -<span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>and broke out into a vehement flood of share quotations -and statistics of exports. And all the time he stared at -Hedvig with an expression that was at once appealing, -passionate, embittered and sceptical. He wanted to dazzle -her, make her enthusiastic, but there was something spasmodic -and almost despairing in his efforts. There was not -a spark of real and innocent joy in the present moment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Did he see through her, this woman before him, or did -he suffer from the fact that the passionate pulses of his -heart were only capable of stirring the ashes of some dry -calculations?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig stared at the table-cloth. She felt his glance on -every point of her face and neck. His harsh, quick voice -at the same time opened up the whole world for her and -spun her into a net of supple meshes. It was already -as if she could not move hands or feet. He seemed to -her to come closer, closer. She intermittently felt hot and -cold in this strange heat with cold currents that streamed -out from his being. Quickly, relentlessly the terror rose -in her, the irresistible terror of seeing herself cut off from -any possibility of escape, overpowered.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She suddenly got up from coffee:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Shall we not do the round of the pictures today?” she -said. “It is the first time it has been light enough after -dinner.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The round of the pictures was an invention of Hedvig’s -fear. She felt safer amongst Percy’s pictures.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy rose slowly and offered Hedvig his arm. The tension -in his face broke down. He was evidently not pleased -to have to leave his own special field of attack and to -have to resort to a slow roundabout strategy in order to -fight with a dead man.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And yet Levy could certainly talk of art, in case of need. -He was a connoisseur in his own way and had a great -deal to say not only of market values but also of theories -and technique. There were various things here that he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span>could tell some malicious stories about, various things he -was prepared at once to slaughter with his criticism, but -also some things he had to admire. But it was a jealous, -inarticulate admiration. Levy bit his lip and kept silent. -To come up against the dead husband all the time made -him, Jacob Levy, barrister, embarrassed and uncertain of -himself. He knew much, but not how to battle with a -shadow.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig found time to breathe. And she at once started -the game of “Chinese shades.” It was really a game in -her own style, silent, stealthy, and unconsciously false. -She had had many and long rehearsals of it out there by -the grave. Every accent of her voice was reminiscent -of crêpe. Solemnly she advanced through the rooms which -the evening light was filling with its first pure tones of -gold. She stopped with head inclined before one picture -after the other. In every gesture, in every word, she -simulated admiration for her dead husband’s fine understanding -of art and for the modest, unselfish enthusiasm -that never failed in spite of exhaustion and suffering.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A good dose of almost religious piety was administered -to Levy. But he evidently did not like the medicine. -His pallor was tinged with green. His lips curved into -an imperceptible, nervous grimace. But he had to swallow -it all the same. It was only when they had come out -into the hall among the modern things that he suddenly -plucked up his courage again amidst these new, more reckless -and more highly coloured surroundings. With a -solemnity that was more austere than ever—perhaps because -it required more effort—Hedvig halted before an -animal painting, signed by a not unknown French artist. -The picture represented two tigers, as innocently striped -as if they had been painted by a child of five. They were -playing in a jungle which seemed to consist of a ragged -bouquet of dried grass.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Levy could keep silent no longer: “I know a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span>little story about that master,” he exclaimed eagerly. “Two -Parisian Jewish dealers had a good lunch together and -then went down to the <i>Salon des Indépendants</i>. And -there one of the Jews made a bet with the other that inside -a year he would take up and make famous any one -of the exhibitors. And the other Jew walked about a -long time searching till he found the most hopeless and -impossible painter in the whole gigantic exhibition. He -chose this painter. But the other was not frightened. -He quickly created for the tiger painter a new school of -art, which was dubbed ‘naïvism’ and in one year he became, -as a matter of fact, world-famous. There you see -the power of advertisement and of the Jewish genius.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Of course Hedvig in her inmost heart understood Levy -much better than the picture. But we are all most sensitive -about our lies. And she also grew angry because -she felt again that she was losing her supremacy and began -to feel unsafe. That’s why she regarded his blasphemous -story as an insult to Percy’s memory.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“An artist may be great even though he has been run -by an unscrupulous Jew,” she mumbled. “This picture -was, as a matter of fact, bought before the Jews made -it expensive. And it was the general opinion amongst -my husband’s friends that it was a real find.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig began an eager defence of the striped tigers and -the ragged dried grass. She used expressions that she had -heard on Percy’s lips during the art discussions down in -Montparnasse and from the time when he tried in vain to -convince her of the new ideals. She stole his phrases, -his catchwords, his characteristic abbreviations, his little -jokes and even his trick of bending his head on one side -and looking through half-closed eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So the game of “Chinese shades” was followed by a plundering -of the dead. All that she could lay hands on was -now used as a weapon against the insistent Levy. Truly, -human beings play strange games with each other.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span>Levy suddenly looked very tired. There was something -pathetic about his raised shoulders. He had one of his -fits of inevitable truth-telling. But his quick, harsh voice -was unsteady:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why do you lie to me, Hedvig?” he mumbled. “You -were an enemy to all art whilst your husband was alive. -Yes, I know it. And you are still to this day indifferent -to all this. And all the same you let loose these striped -tigers on me. Why can you never be sincere, Hedvig? -Why are you so afraid that you must always lie?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig froze up and was silent. Every nerve in her was -chilled. Never had anyone dared to come so near to her. -It seemed as if this man had dared to see more of her than -she herself had seen. She kept absolutely motionless like -an animal shamming death to escape a danger. And still,—did -she not feel far, far within a sort of wild relief, -something of the same kind as she had felt once when hearing -Peter’s cynicisms, though deeper, finer....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy stretched out his hand:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-night! I am a little tired. I must go now. I -will look after your mortgage. Good-bye—till next time!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And then he was gone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig went to bed, though it was still daylight. She -was accustomed to go to bed immediately after his visits. -She longed to lie motionless on her back and think.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig undressed slowly and carefully. She still felt -her nerves trembling. For a moment she stood naked -before the big mirror built into the wall. Her body was -wonderfully well preserved. In its pale, even whiteness, -its slim roundness, it seemed to her wonderfully young, -immensely younger than she herself. And still it made her -shudder. It might betray her to love, at any moment it -might betray her to love.... And some day it would -relentlessly deliver her to death. Yes, Hedvig belonged to -those in whom nakedness always awakens thoughts of death. -If she had lived some hundred years earlier her fear would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span>have driven her to self-torture. Then she would have -scourged and martyred her body in order to blunt the point -of death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She quickly drew the blinds and crept beneath the bedcover. -She slept in Percy’s old bedroom, that solemn -debauch in the architecture of the ’nineties which had once -aroused her frightened amusement when she came there -as a nurse. The bed still resembled a gigantic catafalque, -in the vault of the alcove, the zodiacal signs gleamed and -in the twilight on the opposite wall the blood dripped from -Saint Sebastian’s naked sides....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig knew that she had a long sleepless night in front -of her. With her eyes half-closed and her hands stretched -by her sides, she went slowly and carefully through all -that had passed between her and Levy. In the silence she -weighed his gestures, his looks, his tones and his actions. -There was something in them that she revelled in, slowly -sipping, drop by drop, like a frightened drinker. It was -a lonely, selfish joy, separated from the world by walls of -darkness and silence.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But by and by she grew more restless, sighed, and turned -over beneath the bedclothes. She felt that she was -approaching a thought that always recurred with terrible -regularity during her nightly meditations. Levy was her -lawyer? Why did he not charge her anything? She had -asked once long ago what she owed for the winding-up, but -she had received an evasive answer. Since then they had -not discussed that point. Did he not want to accept anything? -He might have asked for a very large sum. She -could not help enjoying the thought of having perhaps -escaped it. But then came the frightened after-thought: -Why does he not want anything? Of course because it -imposes an obligation, because he wants you to become -his. He may ask you to be his wife any day.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy was no longer a harmless, gently stimulating, -caressing shadow. He stood there by the side of her bed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>terribly alive and with pale face and harsh, passionate -voice, hotly demanding his rights. And behind him roared -the whole traffic of the vast opening world. She had to -answer yes or no. She knew she could not escape that -moment. Yes or no. Torn between jubilation and agony -she writhed in the darkness. She could not quite set aside -her passion. Her egoism trembled to the very roots. She -dreamt frightened dreams of being permitted at last -to bare herself, give herself up, be freed from herself, -to fling all her misery into the flames of love.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But in the midst of her excitement she suddenly became -cold as ice. Horribly clear a voice sounded inside her: -“Supposing he only wants your money!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then suspicion, and anxious greed rushed over her with -a thousand reasons. She tormented herself systematically -with her sister’s and brothers’ shrugs of shoulders, sarcasms -and covert warnings. Levy’s sharpness, his genius for -business, his legal acumen, all that she had profited by in -him seemed now to bear witness against him. “Yes, it is -my money he wants,” she mumbled, “of course it is my -money.” And now she forgot his looks, his accents and -the unsteadiness of his voice. And the memory of her own -white body in the mirror could no longer warm her with a -single spark of self-confidence. No, it is my money he -wants. And perhaps he does not even mean to marry me -to get it. Perhaps he will simply use his position to cheat -me, trick me, and rob me. He must have seen that I don’t -understand business. Perhaps he is just now planning -how he can take all I have from me, and ruin me.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So Hedvig passed hours of grinding agony, till, calmed -by the morning light, she fell into a short sleep.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>A few days later she stood again at the telephone, ringing -up Levy. Now it was a question of some timber shares -that she had bought on his advice and that had gone down -a few crowns.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span>On the fifteenth of June Selambs Ltd. had its annual -meeting. That was the last permitted day according to the -articles of association. Peter could never make himself -pay any dividend a single day before he must.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The meeting was, as usual, held in the office at Selambshof. -Hedvig came early so that the others should not be -able to meet and talk about her. For weeks she had -worried over this meeting, at which Levy would again meet -her sister and brothers. A few years ago—on Laura’s and -Stellan’s recommendation—he had been allowed to buy a -few shares, and had been elected to the board, chiefly in order -to keep an eye on the managing director.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was extremely obliging. He stalked about arranging -shares and distributing writing blocks and pencils. He -always looked frightened nowadays at these meetings, and -today more so than usual.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy came late, in a hurry, with his coat buttoned, as -impersonal as a chapter of a law book. He bowed stiffly -and sat down at once in his usual place; the chairman’s -place at the writing desk.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well,” said Peter, “shall we elect a chairman for the -annual meeting. Is anybody proposed?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura played with the chain of her little gilt handbag. -She was dressed in black and white stripes and had a very -tight skirt. It was in that year that skirts began to be -worn tight. She still had her golden hair and her smooth -skin. And all the same you could clearly see that she -had aged. Her voice sounded cold, the playful purring -had gone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I beg to propose Stellan,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig was huddled up in her corner, staring at Levy. -“Now he will look at me, now he thinks I shall say something,” -she thought and grew cold all over her body. But -Levy did not. Perhaps he grew a shade paler, but he -looked at Laura with an amused little smile. Then he -calmly put away his papers.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>“I beg to second the last honourable speaker,” he said. -“The more so as I have things to say which do not come -well from the Chair.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter’s voice sounded like that of a ventriloquist:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Is the meeting agreed on this?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes,” said Levy in a loud voice. Then he left his place -and demonstratively went and sat down beside Laura on the -sofa, where he took up a foreign newspaper and began to -study the quotations.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So Stellan was chairman. He seemed to take up the -hammer without any enthusiasm and now and then cast -embarrassed side-glances at his predecessor. They then -proceeded to the adjustment of votes. When they came to -Tord Selamb, one hundred shares, absent, Levy pricked -up his ears:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Mr. Chairman,” he said, in an indifferent tone, “this is -now the third year that Mr. Tord Selamb neither appears in -person nor sends a proxy. Is that not strange?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan looked inquiringly at Peter:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I suppose the meeting has been properly convened? -He has been called?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter searched his papers:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Tord does not care a damn for old Selambshof,” he -muttered in a reproachful tone. “He does not care a -damn for anything....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Supposing the reason is that he has sold his shares,” -said Levy without looking up from his paper.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now it was Stellan’s and Laura’s turn to prick up their -ears:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Sold? To whom should he have sold them?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Both looked threateningly at Peter.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy continued:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We can safely strike Mr. Tord Selamb off the list of -voters. Because I happen to <i>know</i> that for three years -he has not possessed a single share.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How do you know that?”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span>“That’s very simple. I wrote and asked him.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But Tord does not answer letters.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, not the first. But perhaps the third if it makes -him really furious. In the end I got the answer wrapped -up in a parcel of abuse. He has sold his shares.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan rose and stared at the managing director of the -company:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Peter, have you cheated him out of his shares?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter resembled a bear which has been smoked out of -his den. He growled nervously and beat about him with -half paralysed paws.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Hm, well, damn it all, what was I to do.... He -begged me to help him....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura rose purple with anger:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are a wretched scoundrel,” she cried, “a wretched -scoundrel! For three years you have cheated us!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan fidgeted at his sister’s vulgar expression:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Please tell us immediately what you paid Tord,” he -said stiffly. “Otherwise I will adjourn the meeting and go -out myself to Järnö to find out.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter stood there rocking and shuffling his feet. His -eyes grew smaller and smaller in his head:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, seventy-five thousand,” he mumbled with a grin -that was now rather pleased than embarrassed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura seemed on the point of flying at him:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Seventy-five thousand! What a pretty business. We -can understand you wanted to keep it to yourself!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan looked as if he had bitten into a very sour apple. -He was apparently exercising his art of formulating things:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It will be our common duty to take care of Tord when -he has finally ruined himself,” he said. “Thus it is only -reasonable that his shares should be distributed equally -among us.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Never!” said Peter, “never! never!!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stellan was cold as the grave:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“In that case you cannot count on being re-elected. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>There is only one way in which to regain our confidence.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, you will be instantly kicked out if you don’t share -alike,” assured Laura. “We will make Stellan director -instead.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter growled, beat about, threatened, whined, but in -the end he had to say good-bye to his fine little stroke of -family business:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But it went off all right for three years,” he mumbled -with a melancholy grin. “Twenty-five shares per head -at seven hundred and fifty each. It is little short of a -godsend.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After this quarrel in the orthodox Selambian fashion -they resumed their seats and proceeded with smoothed foreheads -and clear eyes with the agenda.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig had been sitting silent the whole time staring -at Levy. She thought of the strong family feeling of the -Jews, and their racial <i>esprit de corps</i>. She searched nervously -for a look of disgust and contempt in his face. The -whole meeting occasioned her a new and mysterious torment. -The harshness of their cold voices jarred on her. -She felt strangely weak and moved. She had suffered and -struggled during those last weeks and now she was tired, -tired. She wanted to stand up and propose that they should -give poor Tord what the shares were worth. The words -burnt her tongue. Never before had Hedvig been so near -the mellow and fragrant shores of life. If only Levy had -reacted, if only she could have seen the proper pained -expression on his face. But she could only discover a -half-amused and half-contemptuous curiosity behind his -oriental mask. And so she never rose up from her chair. -And so the words remained unsaid. And so she believed -that he was cold and hard like the others....</p> - -<p class='c009'>And yet Levy had fought like a lion just for her sake. -He had disclosed what he knew only in order to disarm -Stellan and Laura, whose opposition and ill-will he had -foreseen. There is no time to sit and turn up your nose -<span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span>when you are fighting for the object of your passion. And -must he not be pleased when he saw the magnificent effect -of his information? I have made myself indispensable, -he thought. Now they can’t have the impudence to turn -me out....</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Levy had reckoned without his host.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Without any further quarrels they had gone through the -annual report and accounts, agreed the balance sheet, approved -the action of the directors, settled the dividend and -had now come to the election of the new board. Stellan’s -fingers travelled thoughtfully along the edge of an inky -paperknife. He seemed to want to sit on only half of the -old, worn, dirty office chair:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“May I ask the meeting to propose new members of the -Board?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There was another silence. The room smelt of dust, -pipe-smoke, dry paper and old sun-dried leather. The -shadows of the elm branches in the garden moved sleepily -across the knots in the worn floor-boards. Then Laura’s -voice sounded again, clear, dry and cold:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I beg to propose Peter and Stellan and then—Mr. -Sundelius.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Sundelius was the Manager of a rival firm of Levy’s, -with whom he was moreover engaged in a lawsuit. Nothing -could be more outspoken. Levy took a long puff at his -cigarette:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Excuse me, but has Sundelius any shares in the company?” -he mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura smiled an exquisite little smile and played with -her suede shoe beneath her striped silk skirt:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, I have sold a couple to him.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Stellan’s voice sounded, far away and impersonal:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Has anyone anybody else to propose?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy suddenly looked at Hedvig. Yes, now he looked -at her inquiringly, exactingly, severely. It seemed as if -his black pupils would draw her out of her silent corner. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>He made a gesture. It was something indescribable, something -between a shrug of the shoulders and a passionate, -supplicating seizing of a receding cloak, the gesture with -which one appeals to a hardened miser in a bazaar in the -East. Did she not see how they were playing with him, -sneering at him, wanting to kick him out? Had he helped -her or had he not? Were they friends or not? Did he -love her or not? Were they to marry or not?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig sat there fingering her pencil. Her face was -white. She shivered for cold. What was it Levy asked of -her? Yes, only that she should propose the re-election of -the present board. She must do it at once or it would -be too late. But why did she not say what she had to -say? Why could she not move her tongue? Why was she -so afraid of her own voice?</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig’s glance left Levy and roamed about the room. -Ugh! how many eyes about her—how horribly many! -There sat Stellan pretending to look at his nails, there -Peter sat staring and sulking, there Laura eyed her with -cold scorn. And they all waited for her confession. Go -on, admit now that you are in love with Levy! Call out -to anybody who cares to listen that you are in love with -Levy.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig sat there as if paralysed, incapable of moving -either hand or tongue.</p> - -<p class='c009'>She was silent—and condemned herself to silence for -all her life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Stellan’s voice sounded with cruel, calculated -hardness:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“May we consider the nominations closed?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes,” said Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Does the Meeting elect the candidates proposed, Peter -Selamb, Stellan Selamb and Mr. P. Sundelius?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes,” said Laura in a loud voice.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The hammer fell.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy rose. He was perhaps paler than before. Nobody -<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span>could see whether his hands trembled, for he had put them -in his trouser pockets. His voice sounded steady:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, then I have nothing more to do here. The fee -due to me as a member of the board you will perhaps allow -me to forego for the benefit of your brother, Mr. Tord -Selamb, whose circumstances I consider deserving compassion.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And with that Levy left the annual meeting of shareholders -in Selambs Ltd.</p> - -<p class='c009'>All eyes turned maliciously towards Hedvig’s corner. -They forgot Levy’s sarcasm to enjoy their triumph.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Ugh! how nice to be rid of the Jew,” laughed Laura. -“It was really wise of you Hedvig not to persist in clinging -to that knave of spades.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He is really an impossible person,” said Stellan. “His -father came to Sweden on foot with a bundle on his back.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter wanted to add his straw to the heap too, though -he did it in a somewhat strange way:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If I had followed that scoundrel’s advice I should still -have had Tord’s shares,” he muttered. “He advised me -to transfer the shares in his name, then we two and Hedvig -would have been able to outvote you. But I thought it -was too devilish.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>This was a lie, a clumsy lie. Hedvig knew it and still -she remained silent and allowed her mind to be poisoned. -Yes, she sat there with a face that shrank in pale, shivering -misery and allowed them to thrust the sting into her love. -Their cold malicious joy even gave her a sort of miserable -relief. It soothed her wound. At last she managed to -rise and go out. At the door she suddenly turned round:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I don’t know why you make such a fuss about Levy,” -she mumbled. “I think he is useful to run errands.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the car Hedvig sat and repeated these words to herself -as if she had been afraid of losing them. She got -out in town and walked about for hours in the streets. -She would have turned to a statue of ice if anyone had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span>whispered to her that she did so in the secret hope of -meeting Levy. But when she came home she kept near the -telephone the whole evening. “If he rings up now and reproaches -me,” she thought, “how shall I make him understand -that it is quite hopeless to expect anything of me.” -It was late when, with a sigh Hedvig tore herself away -from the telephone. Then she lay on her bed in the cool -green half light of the summer night. “Tomorrow he will -come of course,” she thought. “He will be pale, bitter, sarcastic. -He stops in front of me without stretching out his -hand. ‘What do you mean? Have I deserved this treatment? -Are you so ungrateful and hard? Or do you -mistrust me? Have they told you I want your money? -But that is a lie, you know it is! I love you Hedvig! I -can’t live without you! You must be my wife.’”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig lay quite still and felt the blood burning in -her veins as in a fever after an ague. “Yes, then I must -tell him—that I can <i>never</i> be his wife,” she thought. But -it was a strange trembling “<i>never</i>.” She longed with every -fibre of her being to hear those reproaches, that prayer -which she thought to refuse.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was not Levy who came the following day but a -letter from the firm of solicitors Levy & Östring, containing -a bill for thirty-five thousand crowns for winding-up costs -and various other commissions.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Poor Levy. There was a sort of helplessness in this -revenge. His thoughts were cast almost exclusively in -terms of money. He could not grow furious without figures -buzzing in his ears. That’s why his wounded pride -and aching love found expression in a heavy bill of costs. -Yes, for he had really loved Hedvig with a passion that -was not less because it was embittered and clear-sighted.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy’s revenge had much more effect than he had suspected. -He had as a matter of fact sent Hedvig a bull -of excommunication that was to part her completely from -life and mankind.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>“There!” was her first thought, “he did want to plunder -me. He wanted my money and nothing else.” And she -felt confirmed in all her old morbid suspicions. There -were only cheats and crooks in the whole world and Levy -was one of the worst of them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But at the same time the last shreds of the veil of charity -were torn from her feelings. She knew now that she had -loved him; that she still loved him in spite of all; that -she would never be rid of an aching pain in her heart.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was the climax of a mute and humiliating drama -in which love fought a hopeless fight against mean fear. -Hedvig remained with her poor gold.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, she clung convulsively to the money for which she -had sacrificed all. She could not transact any new business -herself but, strange to say, and in spite of her distrust, -she allowed all Levy’s investments stand. But she -collected her papers, pondered and calculated. Down in -the vaults of the bank and at home in her villa she sat -and counted and counted. Like the hermit with his rosary -she sat mumbling, letting one figure after the other slip -between her fingers.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Levy’s letter accompanying the bill she did not answer. -Perhaps it was her timid unwillingness to reveal anything. -Perhaps it was a secret hope that he would call himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>In the end Mr. Levy had to take proceedings to get his -money.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig no longer drove out to Percy’s grave. The -shadow game was over. She no longer needed the dead to -protect her against the living. And though she now more -and more rarely went outside the house she no longer -glanced at Percy’s collections. It was really a strange -whim of fate that just such a being as she should steal -about in that big house, built as a home of Art.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c009'>On a sultry and still summer evening Hedvig rose with -smarting eyes and throbbing temples from her papers in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>the bedroom. She had an idea that people stared at her -down at the bank and she had therefore brought everything -home: shares, mortgages, title deeds, deposit receipts, -bank-books and bundles of notes. And now it was difficult -in the evenings because she did not dare to light the -light from fear of being seen from the outside through the -chinks in the blinds. She sat over her papers till the figures -swam together in a grey mist and there was a pricking -sensation in her eyes. Then she crept to the door to see -that the towel was hanging over the keyhole, so that none -of the servants should peep in. Then she stole slowly, -stopping all the time to listen, towards the big built-in -wardrobe where she had found a good hiding place behind -an old carved chest. When her treasure was hidden, she -noiselessly opened a window and looked out to see if anybody -moved.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig stood long in the window. The evening was -sultry and heavy. Far below the firs lay a woolly darkness. -Above, a few faint scattered stars hung in a sky -to which the reflections of the neighbouring town imparted -a reddish, ominous hue. Against this background she -presently distinguished the quick shadowy flight of the bats -round the eaves, the soft flutter of the moths, the flight of -the spiders with their long helplessly suspended legs, all -the mysterious fluttering and hovering things out in the -big witches’-kitchen of the damp, warm summer night.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig felt a fever round her temples, a dull anxiety. -All her silent, secret, suppressed feelings revived for the -last time and moved about in the darkness. It was the -restlessness of the body in the presence of the relentless -oncoming autumn that melted together with her dim light-shy -anxiety for her treasure.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig closed the window, pulled down the blind, turned -on the light, and began to undress. She moved slowly, -hesitatingly, sighing. At first she turned her back to the -mirror, but by and by she stole one glance after the other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>into it. She was irresistibly drawn to the corner where -the mirror stood. It seemed that the air there was not -so still and burdened with loneliness. Before the mirror -her movements quickened. With her glance fastened intently -on her own image Hedvig loosened her hair and -let her last garment fall to the floor. She had aged quickly -of late, had grown grey about the temples and had folds -beneath her breasts. And now she suddenly screwed up -her face, so that it was full of wrinkles, and emphasised -the weariness of her pose. “I am old,” she mumbled, -“I am old.” And it seemed as if she had huddled up -under the lee of old age.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Hedvig did not escape so easily. She did not deceive -herself. With a jerk she straightened herself up again, -threw back her head, lifted her arms behind her neck so -that her breasts seemed more beautiful. And she felt how -a smile spread and opened out on her face. She saw it -in the mirror, a strange, girlish trembling smile with pouting -mouth, ready to be kissed and bitten. She began to -turn and sway to and fro as if she heard dance-music. -Closer and closer her face approached the mirror. She -felt a faint sickness as if in a swing, and the air felt hot -round her temples. Beside her own nakedness she beheld -in the unnatural gloom of the mirror-room the nakedness -of St. Sebastian. The ropes cut into his beautiful limbs. -The points of the arrows were softly embedded in the even, -slightly bronzed flesh.... To Hedvig he suddenly assumed -Levy’s face. Yes, it was Levy’s mouth which smiled -at her. His lips had lost their scorn and smiled close to -hers, ecstatically, sensually. His eyes had lost their sharp, -short-sighted stare and revealed black, fathomless depths -of life and passion. His scorching breath rushed over her, -his arms bent her irresistibly....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig collapsed. Moaning and sobbing she rolled on -the carpet whilst the last late attenuated rush of blood -painfully fought its way through her bosom....</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>Suddenly she started as if somebody had poured cold -water over her. She seemed to hear footsteps and whispers -outside. She flew to the switch, turned out the light and -listened again intently. Then she quickly put on some -clothes and lifted the blind carefully. Trembling in her -whole body she lay there crouching and watched. At first -she saw only the black darkness, but by and by she distinguished -two figures, one dark and one light, down by -the fence. They stood in the shadow of the firs tightly -clasped together.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It was the chauffeur and the parlourmaid.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig was at once overcome by confused emotions of -shame, indignation and furious suspicions. The impudent, -shameless, immoral rabble! Before my eyes! Of course -they were spying through the chinks in the blinds. And -now they are laughing at me between their kisses. Yes, I -have seen them often exchange glances of secret understanding. -Fancy if they have seen me with the papers -too. Fancy if they are conspiring to rob me. If they -murder me one night and take everything and set fire to -the house to hide their crime....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig remained on her aching knees till the couple -had passed through the gate and disappeared in the darkness -of the forest. Then she dragged herself to bed and -lay there listening with every nerve in the thick darkness. -All the time she imagined she heard something move in -the wardrobe. In the end she had to get up and bring the -papers and the money into her bed. With her arm round -the two heavy leather portfolios she at last fell into a -restless slumber.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The following morning Hedvig dismissed the chauffeur -and the parlourmaid. That was the beginning to the depopulation -of Hill villa. Then she sold the car and had a -fire and burglar proof safe built into the wall in the wardrobe. -When it began to grow cold in the autumn she closed -up the picture galleries and only heated a few rooms. By -<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>that time both the cook and the other maid and the gardener -had gone. She had only one servant left, an old -bad-tempered, silent, faithful servant of the Hill family.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The snow came and Hedvig got herself up at dawn, so -as not to be seen, and swept the snow drifts from the gate. -For long periods only one thin column of smoke rose -from the chimneys to show that there was still flickering -life in the big white villa. It gradually began to become -a ghost-house.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span> - <h2 class='c005'>VIII<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>TORD SAILS OUT TO SEA</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>With its knife-sharp stem the big motor boat cut -straight through the September storm. In the -stern Stellan and Laura were lying, well protected -from both draught and spray by canvas and bevelled glass -screens. The splash of the waves mingled with the sound -of jingling mirrors and trays in the elegant saloon.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The motor runs nicely today,” observed Laura.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It always runs well when you are on your way to something -disagreeable,” mumbled Stellan.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Do you think there is more vibration in the bows?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Of course there is nearer the motor. Why do you ask?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The vibration is nearly as good as massage. I have -not had any for a whole week. It’s perfectly awful. I -think I will move up there.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura stepped up to the bows. Her life was now characterised -by an incessant struggle against incipient corpulency. -She took massage, had gymnastics, played games -and rode. The fear of getting old forced her out of her -feline laziness. She positively dared not sit still. “If -I rest or if I lie on my back, then old age will come over -me,” she thought. This new restlessness went hand in hand -with an ardent desire to be in at everything, not to miss -anything. She had fallen a helpless victim to the disease -of seeing and being seen. Dances, first nights, private -views, bazaars, matches:—everywhere you saw Countess -von Borgk. And everywhere you saw her flirt with young -men, preferably very young men.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span>It had not been exactly an agreeable surprise for Stellan -to discover her at the great autumn shooting party at -Granö. Stellan was no longer fond of female company. -His wife he fortunately escaped. She was always at the -seaside or at some sanatorium, but Laura he often met. -But with the old bachelor Major von Brauner he had -thought he would be free from her. Certainly Brauner -had figured at Laura’s gambling evenings out in the Narvavägen, -but Stellan did not know that relations had continued. -Judge of his annoyance, then, when he turned in -his motor boat and saw his pretty sister on the pier; Laura -in short skirts, with puttees on her legs and a young painter -fool carrying her gun.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And at dinner she came down, the only lady amongst -so many men, half naked, wrapped in some green silk stuff -that really cried aloud of her lost youth. And she herself -gave the signal for the naughty stories after dinner. Grotesque!</p> - -<p class='c009'>As if that were not unpleasant enough they began to -talk about the neighbouring Järnö. And who should start -that topic but Laura. She was half lying in her chair -and told lots of stories about dear old Tord. There was -a moment of painful silence, but as the family itself did -not seem to mind ... well, then they let their tongues -wag. Nobody mentioned such a trifle as that Tord had the -Governor of the province at him all the time for neglect. -That was to be seen in any paper. But now he had put -up big notices:</p> -<p class='c016'>“Landing forbidden on penalty of death.</p> -<p class='c017'>Tord of Järnö.”</p> -<p class='c003'>And he actually did shoot at people who entered his -waters. Von Brauner himself had once sought shelter there -during a thunderstorm and had heard the bullets whizz -<span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span>about his ears. The people round about were so furious -that an accident might happen at any moment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“A philosopher who has read too much Darwin and -Nietzsche,” mumbled Stellan. “He wants to be a living -protest against the more sentimental theories.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan tried to save the situation by being objective at -the same time as he appealed to the sportman’s individualism -and the aristocratic prejudices of the company.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Laura laughed:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Nonsense, he is just mad. But anyhow, madmen may -be rather jolly.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The following day Stellan left Gränö in order to go to -Järnö and talk to Tord. It was not so easy to get Laura -to come with him, because she felt very much at home -amongst the shooting party. But now they were on their -way anyhow. The motor boat already began to plunge in -the rougher and heavier seas of the big Järnö bay.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan put on an old oilskin and went up on the captain’s -bridge:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Are you quite sure of the chart?” he asked the man at -the wheel.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, sir, I was born in this neighbourhood.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Between the seas Stellan took the opportunity of looking -down into the engine room. Because he had his suspicions -of Laura’s vibration. The mechanic, who was a handsome -dark youth, might also have something to do with it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was an old gambler, who was very frightened of -leaving anything to chance.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The rocking of the boat soon made Laura leave the -fumes from the engine room and quietly creep into the -saloon.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They were approaching Järnö. Tall and foreboding -rose the dark, rusty-looking hill surmounted by its log -castle. The boat steered straight for the entrance to the -harbour.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span>Was the madman really going to shoot? Not even -through his Feiss-glasses could Stellan distinguish any -sign of life.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Bang! A shot rang out above the lapping of the waves -but nobody saw where it went.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“One ought to come here in warships,” the man mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan slowed down. They slipped under the lee of -the hill beside a dilapidated old shed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Another shot of welcome! This time the shot struck -only a few yards to starboard. But it was impossible -to discover who had fired it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura cried out that she wanted to go back. Stellan -looked as if he felt sick. He waved a handkerchief eagerly -as a flag of truce. There were no more shots. The boat -floated quietly in towards a tumbledown fishing pier. But -still no living soul was visible.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had some trouble in getting Laura out of the -saloon. Not that he had any illusions about Tord’s chivalry, -but he felt safer all the same when he had her with -him. Silent and hesitating they went ashore, still with -the reports of the shots on their nerves. They passed -through an old field which was now running wild and full -of little shoots of birches and aspens, then they cut across -a little garden quite overgrown with pestilence weed out -of which a few half suffocated black currant bushes -stretched up their arms like drowning people, whilst the -poor naked apple trees writhed in grey despair in front of -a rotting cottage wall with broken windows and grass-grown -porch. Nature crept in over the work of man and began -to resume its power. Over the whole there lay, in the -gloomy autumn day, an indescribable odour of dampness, -decay and dismal neglect.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Shivering, Laura and Stellan took the path up the hill. -Up there, whipped by the winds, the big house lay with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span>its weathered logs, surrounded by a litter of empty tins -and broken bottles.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Nobody came out when Stellan knocked. The door was -not locked and they walked in. The big hall was cold, -dirty and filled with a strange smell of animals. The -whole house shook in the gale, and on the windows towards -the north a pine branch knocked persistently as if the -wind wished to enter as a guest.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They cautiously penetrated further. On one of the folding -beds in the bedroom something lay huddled up under -a reindeer skin. It moved when Laura lifted the fur rug -and an untidy head peeped out. It was Dagmar. She -stared in dull amazement at the visitors, without recognizing -them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am Laura ... Laura Selamb ... and this is Stellan.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, I see, it’s you....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar crept down. She was dressed in some grey -rags. She had the grey complexion of the really poor, -she looked emaciated, worn out. She gave at the same -time the horrible and pitiful impression of a starved and -tormented woman. She shook herself, and her teeth chattered:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am lying down as I am not quite well.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We wanted to speak to Tord,” said Stellan. “Where -is he?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar’s face hardened:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I don’t know at all.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He greeted us with his gun, so he must be in the -neighbourhood.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I suppose he ran away when he recognized you. He -is not very fond of visitors.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Dagmar suddenly approached Laura and stroked -the smooth sleeve of her raincoat timidly, like a frightened -dog:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span>“Goodness, how pretty you are! Do you know I have -not talked to a woman for several years.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura shrugged her shoulders and giggled:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, that is nothing to long for.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>An expression of terror suddenly came over Dagmar’s -face.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You must be hungry,” she mumbled. “And I have -only got a little salted herring.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan went out and blew three short sharp signals on -a whistle. Then he returned.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Don’t trouble about food,” he said. “My men will -bring up all we need. But how shall we get hold of -Tord?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Oh, he has not eaten anything today, and when he is -hungry he will come and feed out of your hand.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The men soon arrived carrying up boxes of food and -wine. Dagmar excused herself for a moment and dived -into a wardrobe to make herself smart.... She returned -dressed in an old-fashioned, frayed red silk frock which -hung round her thin body. But there still glimmered a -last spark of beauty in her features.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When dinner was over she went out into the porch and -hammered a broken zinc tub with a poker and shouted into -the forest:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Food, food, food!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>It sounded like the cry of an angry bird through the -roaring of the wind.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord did not come.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, then we can eat without the beast,” said Dagmar.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Her eyes suddenly grew wet as she sank down by the -dazzlingly white tablecloth. Such a lot of lovely food—so -many fine bottles! And then there was the man with -“Rapid” in white letters across his jersey, just like a footman -behind her chair! And then Laura’s jewels and Stellan’s -yachting suit!</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Goodness me,” she mumbled. “Goodness me!”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span>And then she drank her first cocktail.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan pointed to Tord’s empty chair:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“How has our amiable host got into the habit of shooting -at people who call on him?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar quickly drank her second cocktail. A wild -smile lit up her face like lightning:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He is afraid they will come and take me from him.... -So you can see he is mad.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>They ate for a moment in silence. The firelight from -the logs in the fireplace flickered over the faces in the -big dark hall, which was still shaken by the gale, and -where the pine branch still persistently knocked at the -window:</p> - -<p class='c009'>Knock, knock, knock...!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar drank and drank—with trembling hands and -staring eyes. Suddenly she flung herself forward with her -hands stretched across the table and her forehead on the -cloth. She was seized by a paroxysm of weeping:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is terrible here!” she mumbled, “it is terrible here! -I shall never be a human being again, never!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She again lifted her face, distorted and dirty from her -tears. She shook her clenched fists and by fits and starts -there broke from her a wild and disconnected wailing over -the drudgery, the loneliness, the hatred, the savagery of life -out here on the stormbeaten cliff’s.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He is mad!” she cried. “Tord is mad! He can’t bear -to see people. He hides his money under trees. If I had -not stolen from him, we should have starved to death!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>At the mention of money Laura pricked up her ears and -across Stellan’s rigid mask a glimpse of a melancholy grin -appeared. There was thus at least something comprehensible -in this misery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What happened to the money?” he mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was told. Dagmar’s tears dried suddenly. She -spluttered out fragments of the long, bitter monologues of -years. Into her voice there entered the shrill accents of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>old quarrels. Peter had brought the money. And it was -an enormous bundle of notes. But Tord did not put them -into the bank. No, he pushed them all into a drawer, so -mad was he. And he carried the key on a string round his -neck. And he was mean with the money so that he need -not go into town and talk business any more. He wanted -to be free from that mob, he said. The money must last -as long as he lived. And that was why they went half -starved, and dressed in old rags. In the end Tord got it -into his head that they did not need any food from the -shops, but could live by shooting and fishing. It was no -use begging or talking, for then he simply went away. Once -he lay out in the skerries for a whole fortnight and then -Dagmar had only some plaice to live on. But when Tord -came home she saw no other way out than to make him -drunk with his last bottle, and then she took the key and -stole some of his money and sent the old gardener into -town for winter supplies. For the old gardener was still -alive then.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord said nothing when the old man came sailing back -with his load of provisions. He was so hungry that he -just threw himself over the food.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So things went on for a long time. Dagmar had learnt -to open the drawer with a hairpin, and she had to watch -for an opportunity to send the old man out when Tord was -drunk or asleep. It seemed almost as if he acquiesced -in the arrangement so long as he need not give out the -money himself. But one day Dagmar found the drawer -empty. All the notes were gone. She became dreadfully -frightened. She began to spy on Tord to discover -where he had hidden his money. And he was on his -guard to see if she were following him. And thus they -stole about silently and spied on each other like two -criminals. And at last she managed to discover where -he kept his treasure. It was in a hole underneath a tree -<span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span>root behind Mattson’s barn. She took a whole bundle of -notes and hid them for herself. Tord noticed that the -pile had suddenly diminished and he came home white -with fury and threatened to kill her. But she defied him -and would not tell her hiding place. And Tord did not -find it.</p> - -<p class='c009'>One fine day the old gardener died. His pipe just fell -out of his mouth and he was dead. Tord wanted to dig -a grave for the old man down there without further ado. -“We can say that he was drowned, if anybody asks,” he -said. Dagmar frightened him by saying that they would -be arrested as murderers if they did not notify the death. -At last she got him to put up the sails of his boat. Dagmar -sat down in the deckhouse and cried. She felt as if -she had lost both father and mother when they sailed into -the cemetery with the old man.</p> - -<p class='c009'>And now she had only herself to fall back on if they -were to keep body and soul together out there at Järnö. -Soon everything was eaten up again and Tord would not -go to the shops. And when she herself was going to set -out in the skiff he had hidden the oars. She became -so desperate that she sat down alone on the pier and -howled like a wild animal. Then she remembered she -had one more refuge and that was her red blanket. She -had arranged once with the storekeeper that if they were -in distress she was to hang out a big red rug in the window -of the big house. And then he would take the motor -boat and bring food to them. She had not much hope; -she sat for an eternity out on the cliff only staring out over -the water to see if the signal worked. On the third day -a motor boat actually rounded the point and so their distress -was staved off for that time. This had happened last -autumn. The winter was cruel. They had no longer -anybody to carry wood and water. Dagmar became ill -from all the drudgery. For two months they were isolated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span>when the ice would neither break nor bear. At last the -ice froze properly everywhere except over an under current.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But then the peasants smashed up the yacht which was -lying in the steamer track through the ice, and then it -was impossible to get across as they were too weak to drag -out another boat. People had begun to damage everything -of Tord’s that they could lay hands on, nets, piers, -boats; so hated was he now. And Tord no longer swore -and raged. He only walked about like a dumb animal for -days and weeks together. And about that time the lamp -oil also ran out, so that they had to sit there in the darkness -in the evenings after the logs in the fireplace had -burnt out. So they sat there in the dark and dared not -let each other go and still they couldn’t help nagging. -She was ill, and she wanted to die merely to annoy him. -And he tried to keep quiet until she should go mad.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, this has been a terribly long winter,” said Dagmar, -“a terribly long winter.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After which she was quiet for a moment and sat there -rocking her head and staring straight in front of her.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had risen from the table and stood warming -her back at the open fireplace:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But why, in God’s name, woman, why have you not -left him long ago?” she exclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar started. It seemed as if she had been cruelly -torn out of the voluptuous intoxication of at last shouting -out her misery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why didn’t I leave him?” she mumbled; “it must be -because I am mad, because he has infected me, because -I have not spoken to a woman for years. But now there -must be an end. Now I must get away. Fancy, I was -quite young when I came here! Quite young and pretty! -And look what he has made of me now!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She tore her frock open and showed her thin neck and -shrunken chest.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>“Yes, that’s how I am now. I must get away. I must -come with you to town. He says he will shoot me if I -run away—but that doesn’t matter. I can’t live another -winter out here anyhow.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>During Dagmar’s outpourings Stellan had been sitting -motionless sucking an unlighted cigar. Now he exchanged -a quick glance with Laura. Unpleasantness and scandal -threatened from all sides. They must be careful. He -called in the men and ordered them to clear the table and -take the things down to the boat. Then he turned to -Dagmar:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“To take you with us now is absolutely out of the -question,” he said coldly. “But if you can persuade Tord -to go abroad, preferably out of Europe, I am prepared to -give you some money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar had begun to pull out some clothes at random -and put them in a knapsack. She looked up and shook -her head:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You don’t understand,” she muttered hurriedly. “He -is impossible. It is impossible to talk to him. I must -get away!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan rose:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good-bye,” he said. “Thank you. We must get away -before it grows dark. Think over what I have said.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar stamped on the floor:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No,” she cried. “I must come with you! You can -put me ashore wherever you like. I can very well sleep -in the gutter tonight! But I must get away!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura and Stellan walked quickly out. Dagmar came -after them, without hat, in her red silk frock and with -her bundle in her hand. The gale tore her untidy fair hair. -Mumbling, crying, stumbling, she ran after Laura and -Stellan down the rock hillside.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“If you don’t take me with you, I will throw myself in -the water!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And so she did. When by Stellan’s orders the man -<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>pulled in the gangway and the boat began to back out she -flung herself in, scorning death, with bundle and silk frock -and all.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The men had to pick her up. Pale, shivering, dripping, -but full of the determination of despair she clung to the -mast on the foredeck. But Stellan steered into the pier -again....</p> - -<p class='c009'>At that moment a grey figure appeared round the corner -of the shed. It was Tord. For hours he had been sitting -there in the smell of herrings, amongst torn nets and -worm-eaten decoy ducks, and staring at an ant’s trail that -began in a hole in a floor board and disappeared between -some stones at the side of the lake. Now he walked half -way out along the tottering dilapidated pier. He was -dressed in a worn fur cap, grey Iceland sweater and torn -Lapp boots. In his hand he held a rifle. His rough -unshaven face was as grey as a lichen, shrunken, and set in -hopeless defiance. For a moment he stood motionless, -staring at Dagmar, who still tremblingly clung to the mast. -The gust of wind ruffled the pools on deck and tore at her -wet ragged skirt. The vibration of the motor set the water -in the whole of the little harbour nervously trembling. It -was as if the water, the boat and the woman were shivering -from the same cold squall.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I can jump into the water again,” she cried.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan was going to jump ashore, but Tord fingered -his rifle.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Back,” he shouted. “Let go! You shall not land -at my pier again. To hell with you all!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Yes, that is what Tord cried out. For years he had -watched over Dagmar like a red Indian, so that she should -not run away. But now he suddenly stood there telling -her to go to hell!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had settled down comfortably on the bridge. -She pulled Stellan’s arm:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>“Don’t say anything,” she whispered. “Let us see what -he will do. This is interesting. I have not seen Tord for -many years. He really is interesting.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stellan took no notice of her. He was ashamed -before his men and stepped up to Tord. He stood there -straight and stiff in his yachting suit with the mien of -an officer before a drunken recruit.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“This won’t do,” he said in a low tone. “Damn it, -what a figure you cut! You are completely impossible. -If you will take your wife and go away to South America -I will find the money.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord came face to face with his brother:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“South America? Because you have a badge on your -cap? By your snobbish order? You just get aboard. -Access to this island is forbidden by Tord Selamb!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord planted the muzzle of his rifle in Stellan’s stomach -and forced him, with his fingers on the trigger, to retire -on board. After which he took his curved knife and cut -the moorings.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Back,” he commanded again, and the man at the wheel -obeyed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The big red mahogany boat glided quickly out of the -harbour.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Dagmar still clung to the mast and stared shivering at -the lonely grey man out on the pier:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The key of the larder lies under my pillow,” she called. -And there was suddenly a tremulous note of pity in her -voice at the sight of his terrible loneliness.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then she crept down in the machine room.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They were already in the open. The gale had increased -and the motor boat rolled and pitched in the high seas in -Järnö bay. Laura got out some dry things for Dagmar. -She looked up with a grimace at Stellan:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Why the devil had you to go out to Järnö? There was -more fun at Brauner’s!”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>Stellan shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It might be as well to have her with us. Tord will -soon follow and then we will deport them.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord did not see the motor boat for a long while from -the pier. It was hidden by a tongue of land. “I won’t -go up the hill,” he thought. “What the deuce have I to do -on the hill?” But soon after he was up there all the same. -The boat was visible far out in the channel. It looked -like a dark spot on the grey waters. Sometimes there -was a flash of light as it dashed through a big sea. It got -smaller and smaller. He had to fasten his gaze upon it -intently if the water was not to appear absolutely deserted. -Then the boat disappeared far, far away beneath a grey -headland.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord started. When his hand moved on to the rifle -barrel the steel was so cold that it burnt. Somebody -had drawn a deep, moaning sigh. It must have been himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was alone now. It was ghastly how everything suddenly -grew in the loneliness, how everything grew big -and heavy and terrible, the trees, the clouds, the wind, -the sea.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Quickly, as if pursued by an enemy, he dived into his -house. The fire had gone out. The pine branch still beat -against the window: knock! knock! knock! He went up -to the wall and tried with his hand the draught from a -chink between the logs, then he suddenly rushed out into -the kitchen and swallowed some remains of food. It was -the first food he had tasted that day. A drop of wine was -left in a glass. He poured it into him. Then he spat -it out again feeling nauseated. And then he was in the -bedroom by Dagmar’s bed. The pillow was still pressed -down after her head. He raised his clenched fist for a -blow but suddenly stopped and raised the rifle that he -still trailed with him. The shot went straight into the -pillow so that the feathers whirled about. Afterwards it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span>became horribly quiet. Tord shivered. Why make a noise -and shoot? There was nobody to hear him, nobody. -Then the pine branch began to beat against the window -again. Knock! knock! No, he could not stay here!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord went down to the little reed-grown bay. He half -ran but stopped now and then like a child that stops crying -for a moment to feel its pain. Down there the old yacht -lay riding at anchor. For days and weeks its deckhouse -had been his last refuge when everything else was disgusting -and hateful. The punt lay beneath the alder trees. -Tord got it afloat and rowed out through the scattered, rustling -reeds. On board the yacht the deck was covered with -withered leaves. The water had risen up into the cockpit. -Water is never so unpleasant as when, brown with rust -from the ballast, it rises up in an old boat. Tord pumped. -With difficulty he opened the swollen doors of the cabin. -Down below it smelt of rotting oak, rotten ropes, mildew -and damp. He pushed away a lot of rubbish and lay down -on a cushion. Flap, flap! went the eternal waves as they -splashed against the stem. Rat-tat! the foresail halyard -beat against the mast as the wind swept in. And the alders -and the hill swung to and fro through the little window, to -and fro, to and fro!</p> - -<p class='c009'>The chill rose out of the cold, stinking cushion so that -Tord could no longer lie on it. He climbed up on -deck and began mechanically to hoist sail. The stiff grey -hemp creaked in his hands. Out of the wet, mildewed -folds of the sail crawled swarms of earwigs. The sheets -were full of kinks and doublings. The boom suddenly -knocked him down on the deck, but he rose groaning, pulled -in the shiny, green anchor chain and hauled up the anchor, -which was a mass of mire and mud. Then he sprang to -the helm.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As by magic the yacht found its way out through the -narrow, difficult channel. Now it lay in Järnö bay, under -the lee of the familiar hill. Black, gusty squalls puffed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span>in all directions over the leaden grey water. At first -the old hull did not seem to know what it wanted to do. -The sails filled, shivered and went over. The main-sheet -struck off Tord’s fur cap. He did not care. He sat huddled -up by the helm looking at a feather that had fastened -on his sleeve. He stared at the soft, white down that -trembled at each puff. The memories of past kisses, caresses -and embraces softly, wonderfully softly, flattered his -soul. There to starboard was the course to town, to the -people, to Dagmar.... He fell away before an easterly -gust; he was already out in the more steady wind of -Järnö bay.... But then the yacht suddenly went about -with whipping sails and headed out towards the open sea -visible through “The Iron Door.” Tord did not know why -he had tacked. It was as if the old boat had known -better than he.</p> - -<p class='c009'>As soon as Tord had rounded the point, the gale cast -itself upon him as if a window had blown in. The yacht -luffed, slowed down with flapping sails and vibrated till -you could feel it through the whole hull. Then it slowly -fell away and gathered speed.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord seemed to waken up. Beneath his blown coarse -tufts of hair his glance grew keen again. “By Jove, now -we shall have some sailing!” Muttering sturdy oaths, he -worked himself up for a quarrel, a wild quarrel with his -beloved old sea. It was the last thing he had to fight -with. Everything else had gone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was still under the Kall-skerries, and the worst had -not yet begun.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There are gales and gales. This was no puffing, impatient, -spring squall, nor yet a black, summer squall, but -a big heavy, autumn gale with all the grimness of the -coming winter behind it. It came from the north, too. -Sky, water and hills had all the hues of iron. The clouds -hung with shades of darkish blue between the lighter clearings -<span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span>in the sky. The distant cliffs flashed suddenly with a -ghostlike, dead, metallic sheen.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now he would soon be out in the open sea. Now it was -time to put about if ever he wanted to get back. But Tord -did not. The sea was stronger than he.</p> - -<p class='c009'>East of Järnö the sea is almost always deserted. There -are no buoys or lighthouses, no sails and no smoke from -steamers. No man stood with glasses to his eyes following -the death struggle of the yacht out in the raging twilight -of the sea.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Tord did not give in so easily. He sailed like an old -sailor. He sat huddled up to windward and spat out -the salt water and avoided the worst breakers. With -a kind of pale and passionate devotion he saw the -seas grow and grow. Every heavy, onrushing, crested -wave out there in the desolate expanse was like a confirmation -of something he had long, long known. Stiff -with cold in his dripping rags, shivering to the very marrow -with weariness, he felt a mysterious inward joy as both -the boat and himself irresistibly succumbed. Then the -peak blew down and the boom trailed in the water. Then -the waves began to crash in through the missing hatch in -the bows. It became more and more difficult for the heavy -half-disabled hull to lift itself out of the troughs. Then -Tord was flung overboard just at the moment when the -boat capsized and sank. He saw the faded red pennant -at the masthead dive a few fathoms away from him. -He still kept afloat, he was still swimming. But he did -not swim towards the land, but further out, towards the -sea. The last thing he saw was a high, wonderfully tall, -mountain of water, iron-grey, ice-green, rising above his -head, with a crest of coldest, palest foam. In the middle -of the wave he sucked the water into his lungs, lost consciousness -and passed without pain.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Thus finished Tord Selamb’s last great wild quarrel. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span>Defiance you might call it, a wild mad defiance unto death. -A philosopher might perhaps mumble something about -the negative in all egoism. Tord had driven the Selambian -selfishness to the point at which it annihilates itself.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span> - <h2 class='c005'>IX<br /> <br /><span class='small'><em class='gesperrt'>PETER’S TOMBSTONE</em></span></h2> -</div> -<p class='c003'>One cold winter day in the third year of the world war -Laura drove out to Lidingön. Private cars were no -longer permitted, but she had borrowed the big -sledge from Trefvinge.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura did not suffer at all from the biting cold, she was -too fat for that. She had given up the struggle and had -thrown herself into the arms of an ever growing appetite. -The nervous interest in food which had arisen during the -great crisis had broken down her last timid resistance. -Yes, now when other people grew thin she grew fat, irrevocably -fat. Her appearance was really rather striking. -In her shining furs she resembled an enormous, hairy -female animal. Her cheeks had folds in them but her -eyes, embedded in fat, were still clear and quick, and the -small mouth was greedy and hard.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Some people simply do not seem made for suffering.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had in good time put on a soft protective layer -of fat between herself and the cruel “fimbul” winter of a -world in which starvation, pain, hatred and death in these -days did their terrible work.</p> - -<p class='c009'>After some searching they found the road that turned -off to Villa Hill. It had not been cleared of snow. There -was not a trace of footsteps or of sledge marks. It was like -driving into the desert. One turn and the house lay there -apparently quite deserted in its big wooded park.</p> - -<p class='c009'>To penetrate to the front door was impossible, the road -<span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>was blocked by a giant snowdrift. Laura had to trudge -through the snow to the kitchen door where a few tracks -really met. A bad-tempered old servant peeped suspiciously -out through the half-opened door, but did not want -to remove the safety chain.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I am Countess von Borgk, your mistress’ sister. I -have an important errand. Open at once, woman.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura passed through a kitchen that frightened her appetite -to a cold shudder and was then brought through -silent, dusky stairs and passages to the hall.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You can wait here. The mistress is out, but will soon -be back.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura sank down on a chair with a grey cover. She -had not been out to see Hedvig for years. Ugh! how awful -everything looked here, dark, dirty, cold, dilapidated....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Time passed, and Laura grew impatient. She took a -peep at the picture galleries. The door was locked but -she found the key on a shelf.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The poor deserted pictures! Dust, spiders’ webs, damp -spots and dust again. Through dirty window panes, shaded -by overgrown fir hedges and entangled branches of creeper, -through glass roofs covered by the shrivelled leaves of -autumn and the snow of winter a miserable twilight penetrated. -The poor nudes in the pictures shivered in their -bare skin over a long narrow drift that had blown in -through a broken window in the roof. The “<i>plein air</i>” -and impressionistic landscapes were blotted out by the -dust and twilight. The modern brutalities seemed to survive -longest. One or two shrill colour-screams still cut -through the dark, the icy cold, and the silence like a cry -of distress....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura huddled up in her furs. This was too dismal. -She felt hungry—a desire to chew something—so it was -always nowadays if she was exposed to any emotion. She -took a packet of tough nougat out of her hand bag and -took refuge before a big Dutch picture of still life. Chewing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>and staring at a crowd of hams, salmon, lobsters, -oysters and tankards of ale she thought for the thousandth -time: “That Hedvig! That miserable emaciated misfortune! -What a jolly life she might lead if she were not so -idiotic!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Laura saw a dark shadow on the window. A -woman came stealing out from the edge of the wood. -She was thin and bent and she trudged heavily along in -the deep snow. In her skirt she carried a big bundle of -branches, brought down by the wind. From under the -cap pulled deep down over the eyes she looked with shy, -spying glances at the sledge and then walked quickly up -to the kitchen door.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A moment later she slid stealthily and nervously into -the hall.</p> - -<p class='c009'>That grey ghost was Hedvig Hill. The world had long -ago forgotten that she had been a beauty and had been -married to a young sympathetic patron of art. She generally -passed as a half-crazy old maid who was afraid of -people, who hated Jews, and hid her money in the seats -of chairs. But nobody knew how wealthy she was. Whilst -she herself got poorer and poorer and sank into a state of -hopeless sterility, her money had multiplied and multiplied. -It now represented an enormous sum of power and -influence that she could not grasp or imagine.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig stopped with her hand on the door knob and -stared anxiously at Laura:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“What do you want here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura swallowed a piece of chocolate:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Peter has been ill for some time ... well, it is nothing -infectious....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig sounded indifferent.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, what about it?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“He has taken home a creature from Majängen. He -imagines it is his son ... you remember that story....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>An expression of brooding hatred came over Hedvig:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>“All men are disgusting brutes,” she mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura smiled teasingly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I don’t agree....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>She really writhed with the desire to say something sarcastic, -but kept quiet for diplomatic reasons.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig fidgeted impatiently. She suffered to see Laura’s -fatness, her furs, her smile:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But what can I do? Why do you come here?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Well, Stellan asked me to fetch you. We must all three -go out to Peter. Fancy if he is mad enough to recognize -that unfortunate boy as his son!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>On Hedvig’s face came an expression of alarmed excitement, -of mean spite:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Would Peter let us suffer for his excesses....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, he has been angry with us ever since we took -Tord’s shares from him. He has got some plan in his head. -But be quick now!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig stood hesitating:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Will you drive me back here after?” she mumbled.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Of course, you won’t have to spend a farthing. But -be quick!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Hedvig disappeared and returned after a good while, -stuffed up in a lot of moth-eaten woollen underskirts, -jerseys and shawls, amongst which you could distinguish -an old ragged Spanish mantilla fastened about her ears -under the hat as if she had toothache.</p> - -<p class='c009'>They were late for Stellan. He had arranged to meet -them away out at the toll-house. He did not like to be -seen with his sisters, neither the fat one nor the thin one. -Frozen and angry he climbed up into the sledge and pulled -the fur rug round him without greeting them. These three, -sisters and brother, were not exactly a centre of warmth -in the icy cold winter twilight. And still their meeting was -really an extraordinary event, because they never met now -except at the annual board meetings.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura sat looking at Stellan, thinking that he had grown -<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>ridiculously small. She often thought so of people -nowadays. As far as Stellan was concerned it was in -some measure true. Without being bent, he had as a matter -of fact shrunk, sunk into himself. Time had brought to -his face-mask stiff folds which would not permit a smile to -peep through. The hard restless eyes seemed to have -lost for ever the secret of joy. His whole person diffused -solemn boredom of long echoing passages and big empty -rooms of state.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The silence was only broken by the crunching of the -horses’ hoofs and the creaking of the runners where the -snow was thin. The snow had fallen during a gale so that -in open spaces the road was almost bare between the drifts. -They had already passed Ekbacken yard, and the three now -drove along the lake, the lake of their childhood. The -frosted bushes on the shore resembled enormous fantastic -crystals that had grown without sap and lived without life. -They leant over a world of ice-floes frozen together, cloven -from shore to shore by a black channel of open water. -Nothing gave such a shiver of cold as this reeking trembling -open water where the sluggish poisonous stream of Hell -seemed to flow up between the blocks of ice. Over on the -other shore there hung a gigantic cloud, like an enormous -bird, with the grey colour of primeval time, and laden -with pagan cold. Beneath it white globes of light trembled -against a smoky, dull-glowing sky, which seemed red from -the reflection of gigantic sacrificial fires. It was the big -new works built round the old glue factory. Day and -night it shone and roared and hissed on the other shore. -Day and night. There the timber of the forests was ground -to the finest powder as a substitute for cotton fibre in explosives. -A flourishing war industry!</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan did not notice that it was the roar of the flight -of Nidhögg, who feeds on corpses, that he heard, nor that -he passed along Nastrand, the shore of corpses, where -the dragon sucks the dead....</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span>The stiff mask lit up for a moment as he lifted a gloved -finger in the direction of the arc lamps:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Good shares,” he mumbled, “rose five today again.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I see,” said Laura, “then I will buy....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“All right, but don’t keep them too long....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The sledge was already turning up the avenue before -Stellan seemed to remember why they were driving out to -Selambshof.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We must go slow with Peter,” he said. “If we make -a mess of the thing now we shall scarcely have time to repair -the damage. At any moment there might be serious -complications. Fortunately he does not seem to have written -any letters to that woman in Majängen. I mean the -mother. And neither has he taken any steps that point to -recognition or adoption. I know it both through the coachman -and the housekeeper, because I have long been forced -to maintain certain relations with them. This war crisis at -once sharpened Peter’s appetite for unpleasant kinds of -business in a way that made it necessary to keep an eye on -him. It is not long since he had half Selambshof full of -boxes of sugar and butter. Yes, the house was practically -used as a warehouse. I was there one evening myself and -saw the exquisite portrait of our old grandfather peeping -out from behind a pile of boxes of butter.... And then -his company. He has developed a habit of taking home -real criminals, and then they sit up half the night and drink -and gamble like madmen. That creature from Majängen -is by no means the first of his kind. Peter had scarcely -been ill a week when he sent the coachman for him. The -mother, who was a well-known termagant, swore and -behaved like a lunatic. She would have nothing to do with -‘that devil at Selambshof’ she said. And even the young -rogue himself seemed to have had remorse, for at first he -was unwilling to go. But when the coachman returned -with certain vague promises things went more easily and -he ran away from his dear mother to Selambshof.”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>Laura had listened with great interest:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I should have liked to see the first touching meeting,” -she said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It can’t have been very sentimental; Peter is said to -have stared rather angrily at the figure before him and to -have cried: ‘You are a lucky young rascal!’ And then -he asked: ‘Can you play camphio?’ No, he could not -play camphio but he must have been willing to learn, because -from that time the cards were out several evenings -one after the other. Now when Peter is too weak himself, -the coachman and that creature have to be in with him with -cards and alcohol....</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, that is how things are at present. I don’t for a -moment suppose that Peter’s conscience has in any way -awakened or that he has grown fond of the scamp. No, -he is the slave of his money and nothing else. And now -he is working out a trick to keep his fortune together and -to cheat his legal heirs.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>The sledge stopped, they had arrived.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Selambshof looked higher and gloomier than ever—with -all its black windows. In the trees the crows were -quarrelling over their perch for the night. Nobody kept -them in check any longer, so they collected there every -evening. Both horses and people started at the screams -of hundreds of black ghostlike birds in the deep twilight.</p> - -<p class='c009'>An uncanny presentiment of death came over brother -and sisters. Selambshof was at one with Peter the Boss. -But Selambshof was also their own youth ... the root of -their lives ... and now Peter was going to die and lots -of other things with him....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura was frightened and wanted to get out of the sledge:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, this is too awful! I am going home again!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan had to pull her with him. They walked in -silently.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had had his bed moved into the office. It stood -in the place of the old leather settee underneath the yellow, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_396'>396</span>fly-marked Selambshof map. A lonely oil lamp feebly lit -up some soiled glasses on the night table and his own swollen, -puffy, pale face. It really was a room in which an -Eskimo might have complained of the lack of comfort. -But Peter seemed to think it ought to be like that. He -had cheated many in the course of his life, had Peter the -Boss, amongst others himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The visit of his sisters and brother did not seem to be -unexpected or unwelcome. You could even see a little -flash of satisfaction in his features, which seemed to worry -Stellan. Hedvig was earnestly requested to keep quiet at -first, and even did so, after she had crept away into a -corner, wrapped up in all her jerseys and shawls. Otherwise -their tones were of the gentlest. They were all kind -care and spoke eagerly of doctors, nurses, cures, during -which Laura all the same kept at a certain cautious distance, -nervously chewing....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then a dog was heard to bark outside, a great dull subterranean -sound as if it had come from beyond the copper -gates of death. All felt a shiver pass through them. Even -Peter seemed to feel rather uncomfortable:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“That damned dog!” he swore. “It sounds as if the -devil himself was on the way.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan ran to the window. Out in the snow he saw a -shadowy figure dancing a sort of war dance, whilst throwing -snowballs and lumps of ice at the furious watch-dog. -Thin, lank, with high shoulders, and bare hands and head, -in spite of the cold, the shadowy figure danced between -the drifts.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan turned to Peter:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It must be your ... your new boarder ... he amuses -himself by teasing the dog....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I see, is it only little Bernhard?” Peter grunted relieved. -“Yes, he is not exactly a friend of watch-dogs....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But now Hedvig’s voice sounded suddenly from the -corner. She sat there looking as old-fashioned and motheaten -<span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span>as if she had hung herself away in a wardrobe out -of pure meanness and then forgotten where the key was. -Her voice also sounded strangely stuffy and dusty:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You should never have taken up with that woman, -Peter,” she mumbled. “You should never have taken up -with that woman....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter did not seem to have noticed her before. A shiver -passed over his swollen features. Hedvig, that ghost from -the time of the great fear, again raised a secret anxiety in -his innermost being, right in the centre of the hard annual -rings of his soul.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Aha, is it you, you crotchety old soul?” he muttered. -“You are the right person to cheer up an invalid, you are.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>After a murderous look at Hedvig, Laura hurried up -to Peter. Rustling with silk she came, covered with jewels, -the scalps of many men embedded on her swelling bosom. -Her voice sounded anxious:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Dear little Peter, don’t make any scandal, it would be -an awful scandal!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Then Stellan came up:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You must think of our name. Don’t believe the story -is forgotten. You are confessing that you swore false. -A Selamb a perjurer! You can hear for yourself that -it is impossible. That creature would be a walking witness -to your perjury. It is not possible that you should make -such a scandal!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter half rose on his elbow. His pale, puffy face -derived new life from his malice. He looked at them with -an angry gallows-bird expression reminiscent of the great -family quarrels:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Scandal,” he panted, “scandal! That will be for you; -scandal! I shan’t suffer from it.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was also an advantage in its way! Peter sank back -on his pillow with an expression that almost resembled -peace.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The dull barking began again. Once more Stellan saw -<span class='pageno' id='Page_398'>398</span>the dark shadows tumble out into the twilight of the snow-lit -garden. Now he was swinging a bottle in his hand. -Carefully he staggered closer to the tied-up dog. Then -he stood balancing and watching with a cunning smile till -he could get in a blow on the head with the bottle. The -glass broke and the contents ran out over the eyes and -nose of the dog so that it crept into its kennel growling -and sniffing at the strong alcohol. Now the passage was -clear and the shadowy figure ventured to the window to -look in. The face, suddenly pressed flat against the ice-covered -window pane, looked grotesque.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter, who did not seem to be unconscious of these happenings, -beckoned to the watcher to come in. After some -scraping and moving about in the hall, somebody at last -groped about for the door handle. The door was slowly -and cautiously pushed open as if by a burglar and the -dog-fighter came in. He remained in a corner where the -light was faint, made a movement as if to take off a cap -that was not there, whilst his street-arab face, blue with -cold, quickly sobered and assumed an insinuating and -fawning expression.</p> - -<p class='c009'>You could not say that the heir presumptive was exactly -pleasant to look at. But Peter seemed as pleased as ever. -He introduced his son with a mien of having quite unexpectedly, -in the eleventh hour, produced out of his sleeve -a small dirty trump that would win the game:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Yes, here you have the boy. A handsome lad, don’t -you think so? You, Stellan, have none. And yours ran -away, dear Laura. But mine stands here as big as life. -And Bernhard is his name.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Bernhard grinned, a grin, however, that faded quickly -away when Peter quite unexpectedly began to shower abuse -on him because he had touched the whiskey without permission.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There followed a moment’s icy silence. Stellan went -slowly up to Bernhard:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span>“We have come here for your sake,” he said. “My poor -brother, whose strength is much reduced by his illness, -seems to have got it into his head for some unaccountable -reason that you are a relation of his. It is of course an -absurd mistake. As I don’t like mystery, I tell you so -openly in his presence.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Bernhard fidgeted but did not dare to answer. He only -stared at Peter, who, with eyes half-closed, seemed to be -waiting:</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan looked like the incarnation of impersonal authority, -hard as iron and firm as a rock.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Surely you can understand that we can find doctors -and lawyers to clear up this matter,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was still silent, but he began to look as he had -done in days gone by when he used to do a stroke of business. -He winked with his right eye at Bernhard, whose -face suddenly lit up:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, thank you, sir—that won’t work. That was too -simple.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter opened both eyes.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You ought to say ‘Uncle,’ Bernhard,” he said, “you -ought to say ‘Uncle.’”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura could not suppress a little anxious snigger. But -Stellan did not move a feature. He came close up to -Bernhard:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I advise you to be careful,” he said. “I have collected -some information about you in Majängen and know exactly -how you stand with the police.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Bernhard bit his nails, frightened and furious. He -looked again at Peter, who now blinked with both his eyes, -and lay down comfortably as if to listen to music. And -Bernhard did not disappoint his expectations, but stared -Stellan boldly in the face:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, Uncle dear, don’t come in here with the police for -here you see one of the family....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan turned grey, but still controlled himself:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span>“I couldn’t think of bandying words with you. But if -you behave decently we might perhaps compensate you -for the vain hopes my brother may have raised. What -would you say to a couple of thousand-crown notes and a -ticket to America?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter smiled:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You want him to go to America, do you? So that he -might join Laura’s Georg, is that it? Well, Bernhard, -what do you say to America and the cash? A fine offer, -eh?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No, thanks, America does not suit me at all.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter wagged his head, filled with paternal pride:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The lad is no fool. I needn’t be ashamed of him. I -am damned if I don’t envy you when I think of all the -money you will get.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Now Hedvig’s voice was suddenly heard again from the -corner:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You should never have taken up with that woman, Peter. -You should never have taken up with that woman.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan grew furious. His thin bony hands trembled -and his voice broke. The brutality of the barrack-room -broke through his outer shell. It was terrible to see the -aristocratic mask fall so suddenly:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Shut up, you old goat!” he shouted to Hedvig. Then -he held his clenched fist before Bernhard’s face:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“And you, you damned young scoundrel, be off in less -than no time, or the police will fetch you! Get out now!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Bernhard did not get out at all. With this tone -he was familiar. It frightened him less than the icy authority -before. He jumped closer to the bed and lowered his -head between his shoulders ready for a grip at the throat -or a blow at the back of the head. He was evidently prepared -for war as one understood it amongst the youth of -Majängen.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter rose. Yes, he rose up in bed. His pale puffy -face was covered by a broad grin:</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span>“Bravo,” he grunted. “This is better than I thought -it would be. I am damned if I am not beginning to feel -quite well again.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>He was not unlike the man from Chicago who -fainted when he came into the pure air but revived -again when somebody held a rotten herring under his -nose.</p> - -<p class='c009'>It seemed, as a matter of fact, as if death had for a -moment withdrawn from the room before this last grotesque -phase of egoism. Poor overworked death in the -third year of the world war! Coarsened and banalised -by the crude slaughter of engines of destruction and by the -horribly laconic press announcements. Talk no more of -the twinkling evening star and the purifying effect of suffering -or of clear vision at the moment of farewell. What -an age! when men have grown so empty and hard that -they even know no fear. It is as if they no longer existed -themselves, but only their machines and their money. -Egoism driven to extremes turns into something almost -like its opposite. It dies the death of cold, around a -soulless mass of cold metal. Life—spontaneous happy and -suffering life—is nothing, its end cannot therefore be anything -either....</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter was lying with ruined kidneys and was on the -point of collapse. But anything so fine as death, the good -old death, he had never met, and was never to meet.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He just fell to pieces.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A first milder paroxysm had come already. Laura suddenly -seized Stellan’s arm and pointed to the bed. Panic -made her mass of flesh tremble. It was an ugly, cowardly -fright:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Come, let us go!” she panted and pulled her skirts -round her as if she had seen a mouse. “I want to get -away from this at once!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter had sunk back on the pillow. He moaned heavily -and spasms passed over his shapeless face, whilst one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span>hand groped about on his chest and the other contracted -like a claw.</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Stellan pulled himself together with a furious effort. -His face grew cold and hard. This was the last chance. -Now the last card was being played. He pushed Laura -away and bent quickly over Peter with a low but penetrating -whisper:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You are not going to steal from us and make a scandal, -Peter. The slightest effort will be the end. Let us separate -as friends!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Peter struggled with his growing weakness. He forced -the words out with a tremendous effort:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The will ... clear ... all clear....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Stellan bent still lower. It sounded as if he had wanted -to push each word like a probe into the invalid’s conscience:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We shall oppose the will ... there will be a lawsuit -... do you hear, a lawsuit.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I shall ... win ... win....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You will be declared of unsound mind. The will will -be declared null.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“No ... I shall win ... win....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>And it sounded as if a secret malicious satisfaction -irresistibly overcame his cramp and pain. Peter the Boss -will bring an action, Peter the Boss will win. What the -deuce does it matter then if he happens to be dead.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Laura had already fled. Stellan followed slowly, after -having telephoned for the doctor. Hedvig came last. In -the door she turned, stared at her dying brother and mumbled -again obstinately, like a monomaniac:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“You should never have taken up with that woman, -Peter. You should never have taken up with that woman....”</p> - -<p class='c009'>But Bernhard had sunk down on a chair by the bed, -pale, sick, red-eyed. In his bold restless eyes there -appeared something like tears. Youth, even neglected and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span>criminal youth, has always a softer fibre. The real blindness, -cruelty, and sterility lies on the other side of the -midday line.</p> - -<p class='c009'>A few days later Peter the Boss went to sleep, having -never wakened again while he lived. His egoism survived -him. Blind and unredeemed it still survived in his -stupid cunning will. “My money shall rule them,” he -had thought. “They shan’t pass over Peter the Boss so -easily.” And neither did they.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The will showed that he had not taken any steps legally -to recognise his son. He simply made him his sole heir—but -with the important and particularly sound reservation -that he should not dissipate the fortune but only draw -the interest. To this will were attached, however, a lot -of strange conditions which really seemed to have been -added only to give the disappointed heirs a tempting opportunity. -Thus the heir, if he wanted to retain the inheritance, -must always remain clean shaven like the testator -when alive; never travel in motor cars; never back any -bills or go abroad. Strange also was the way he had remembered -his dear sisters and brother. To Stellan was -bequeathed Peter’s watch, an old silver turnip which the -lord of Trefvinge would not even touch with his fingers. -Hedvig got the humble stock of old clothes of the deceased, -and Laura was consoled with the yacht “Laura,” laid up in -the yard at Ekbacken with all its inventory, as for instance, -anchor, buoy, ensign staff, and glass rack, all in memory -of her beloved first husband, Herman Hermansson.</p> - -<p class='c009'>This will was the tombstone of Peter the Boss, and his -relations celebrated its unveiling by a long and scandalous -lawsuit in which nothing of the Selamb nature was hidden -from the eyes of the world. Against Levy, whom Peter -had had the good idea of appointing executor of the -will and who now got a welcome opportunity for revenge -both on Laura and Hedvig, a whole army of lawyers -and psychologists was mobilised. The Selamb brother -<span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>and sisters were now no longer afraid of scandal. These -people, who were really choking with money, tore every -shred of cover from the deceased and scratched the brain -out of his skull, in order to fling it on the judge’s table. -The whole press of the country echoed these magnificent -disclosures. From the court of first instance to that of -final instance this comedy of greed dragged its way along, -but Peter was too cunning for his opponents and won his -lawsuit in the end, as he had said. Yes, one may really -say that it was Peter who won and not his son. That -young rogue had, as might have been expected, not been -able to support his good fortune, but by the time of the -final settlement of the case, already lay in hospital, having -drunk himself to death.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Already during his lifetime Peter had been moderately -well known, but now under the plain stone out in the New -Cemetery, he grew to a type of power. He was accepted -and quoted. People told anecdotes about him, laughed at -those he had tricked, and shrugged their shoulders at his -enemies. The masses in the end always capitulate to a -scoundrel of coarser calibre than themselves. And when -nowadays a poor honest bourgeois who has been working -hard the whole week, takes his Sunday walk beyond the -toll bar and catches sight of Selambshof, he forgets all -that was done up there in that robbers’ stronghold in order -to hamper his own life and make it more difficult and -expensive. And he points at the false Gothic over the edge -of the forest and exclaims:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Look! That’s where that scoundrel Peter Selamb lived! -Do you know what he used to say? ‘God will surely feed -the hawk,’ he used to say. And that is true enough—for -he cheated the town of a good round sum. Twelve -millions he left behind him, that scoundrel, Peter Selamb!”</p> - -<p class='c009'>There is secret admiration in his voice. The heart swells -so strangely in the poor little bourgeois heart, just as does -the heart of a soldier when you tell him about Napoleon.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span>Here ends this book, which has told of such as prefer -to hunt alone.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Georg Hermansson is at the moment of writing already -a prominent engineer in Philadelphia. As far as we can -see, he will soon have to return home to take over the -greater part of the spoil. Who knows? perhaps he will -one day fight the battle of civilisation with the ill-gotten -wealth of the Selambs against those who hunt in flocks. -The best days of the Selambs’ system are now over and -the egoism of the masses is perhaps now the greater danger.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>THE END</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<p class='c009'> </p> -<div class='tnbox'> - - <ul class='ul_1 c004'> - <li>Transcriber’s Notes: - <ul class='ul_2'> - <li>Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - </li> - <li>Typographical errors were silently corrected. - </li> - <li>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant - form was found in this book. - </li> - <li>Text in chapter headings that had extra inter-character spacing is formatted as - italic in eReader devices. - </li> - </ul> - </li> - </ul> - -</div> -<p class='c009'> </p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Downstream, by Sigfrid Siwertz - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOWNSTREAM *** - -***** This file should be named 60685-h.htm or 60685-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/6/8/60685/ - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. 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