Wanderers Part 51

"I saw it the moment she got out of the train. And she looked at me, too, and gave a start. I could see her breathing quickly after. Don't come telling me.... But I can't make out.... Is she from here?"

"Was Fruen pleased, or did she look unhappy?" I asked.

"Nay, I don't know. Yes, I think she was." Grindhusen shook his head, still marvelling how this could be the Captain's wife. "You must have seen her with the Inspector yourself," he said. "Didn't you recognize her again?"

"Was she pleased, did you say?"

"Pleased? Why, yes, I suppose so. I don't know. They talked such a lot of queer stuff the pair of them, driving home--began at the station, the minute she got out. There was a whole lot I couldn't make out at all.

'I don't know what to say,' said she, 'but I beg you so earnestly to forgive me for it all.' 'And so do I,' says he. Now did you ever hear such a thing? And they were both of them crying, I believe, in the carriage after. 'I've had the place painted and done up a bit,' said the Captain. 'Have you?' says she. And then he went on talking about all her things, and how they were still there and never been touched. I don't know what things he meant, but he thought she'd find everything still in its place, he said. Did you ever hear the like? 'All your things,'

he said. And then he went on about somebody Elisabet, and said he never gave her a thought, and never had, I think he said. And she cried like anything at that, and was all upset. But she didn't say a word about being abroad, as the Captain said. No, I'll stake my life she'd come from the Inspector."

I began to fear I had made a grave mistake in bringing Grindhusen to vreb. It was done now, but I wished it undone. And I told Grindhusen himself as much, and that pretty plainly.

"Fruen here's the mistress of the place, and good and kind as could be to every one, and the Captain as well, remember that. But you'll find yourself whipped out of here, and at once, if you go gossiping and telling tales. Take my advice and be careful. You've got a good job here, with good pay and decent food. Think of that, and keep quiet while you're here."

"Yes, yes, you're right," said Grindhusen meekly enough. "I don't say a word; only, that she's the very image of that cousin down there. And did I ever say more than that? I don't know what you've got to make such a fuss about, and as for that, maybe she's a bit fairer than the cousin. I won't swear it's the same sort of hair. And I never said it was. But if you want to know what I thought, I'll tell you straight out. I was thinking she was too good to be that cousin girl. That was my very thought. 'Twould be a shame for her to be cousin to a fellow like that, and I can't think how anybody ever could. I'm not thinking about the money now; you know as well as I do I'm not the man to make a fuss over losing a two-Kroner piece, no more than you yourself, but it was a mean thing to do, all the same, giving me the money one day and taking it back the next. Ay, that it was. I say no more than that. But I don't know what's the matter with you lately, flying out the least word a man says. And what have I said, anyway? A mean lot, that he was; paid me two Kroner a day and find my own food, and always niggling and haggling over every little thing. I've had enough of your talk anyhow, but I'll tell you what was my very thought, if you want to know...."

But all his flow of talk did not avail to hide the fact that he had recognized Fruen at once, and was still convinced that he was right.

All things in order now, the Captain and Fruen at home, bright days and a rich harvest. What more could any wish for?

Fruen greets me with a kindly glance, and says:

"The place looks different altogether after the way you've painted it so nicely. The Captain's ever so pleased."

She seemed calmer now than when I had seen her last, on the stairs of the hotel in the town. She did not start and breathe quickly at sight of me as she had with Grindhusen, and that could only mean she was not displeased at seeing me again! So I thought to myself, and was glad to think so. But why had she not left off that unsteady glance, that flutter of the eyes, she had fallen into of late? If I were the Captain, now, I would speak to her about it. And her complexion, too, was not what it had been. There were some curious little spots about the temples. But what matter? She was no less pretty for that.

"I'm afraid, though," she went on, "it wasn't my idea at all with the lovely grey for the house. You must have made a mistake in thinking I said so."

"Well, then, I can't make it out. But, anyhow, it's no matter; the Captain himself decided to have it."

"The staircase is simply splendid, and so are the rooms upstairs. It's twice as bright as before...."

'Twas Fruen herself was trying to be twice as bright and

"Why, yes, Grindhusen, the Captain's wife is married twice as good as before." I knew that well enough. And she fancied she owed me these little marks of kindliness, for something or other. Well and good, but now it was enough. Best let it be.

Autumn drawing on, the scent of the jasmine all importunate down in the shrubbery, and red and yellow showing up long since on the wooded hills.

Not a soul in the place but is glad to have Fruen at home again; the flag, too, does its part. 'Tis like a Sunday; the maids have put clean ap.r.o.ns on, fresh from the ironing.

In the evening I went down by the little stone steps to the shrubbery and sat there a while. The jasmines were pouring out waves of perfume after the heat of the day. After awhile Nils came down, looking for me.

"No visitors here now," says Nils. "And no high goings-on at nights.

Have you heard anything of that sort at night now, since the Captain first came back?"

"No."

"And that's full ten weeks ago now. What d'you say if I tore off this thing now?" And he pointed to his temperance badge. "Captain's given up drinking, here's Fruen home again, and no call to be unfriendly anyway to either of them."

He handed me a knife, and I cut the badge away.

We talked for a bit about the farm-work--Nils thought of nothing else.

"We'll have most of the corn under shelter by tomorrow night," he says.

"And thank goodness for that! Then we'll sow the winter rye. Queer thing, isn't it? Here's Lars went on year after year sowing by machine, and thought it good enough. Not if I know it! We'll sow ours by hand."

"But why?"

"On land like ours! Now just take the man over there, for instance; he sowed by machine three weeks ago and some's come up and some not. No.

The machine goes too deep in the soil."

"H'm! Don't the jasmines smell fine tonight?"

"Yes. There's been a big difference with the barley and oats these last few days. Getting on time for bed, though, now!"

He got up, but I did not move. "Looks like being fine again tomorrow,"

says Nils, glancing at the sky. And then he went on about the gra.s.s in the garden; worth cutting, he said it was.

"You going to stay down here long?" he asked suddenly.

"Yes, for a bit; why not? Oh, well, perhaps I'd better go up too."

Nils walked off a few paces, then came back again.

"Better not stay here any longer," he said. "Come along up here with me."

"Think so?" I said, and rose at once. Evidently Nils had something in his mind, and had come down here on purpose to fetch me.

Had he found me out? But what was there to find out?

Did I know myself what I had gone down to the shrubbery for? I remember now that I lay face downwards, chewing a stalk of gra.s.s. There was light in a certain upstairs window of the house. I was looking at that. And that was all.

"Not being inquisitive now, but what's the matter?" I asked.

"Nothing," said Nils. "The girls said you were down here, so I just came along. Why, what else?"

So the maids had found me out, I thought to myself, and was ill pleased at the thought. Ragnhild it must be, a devil of a girl, sharp as a needle; she must have said a lot more than Nils was willing to confess.

And what if Fruen herself had seen me from the window!

I resolved now to be cold and indifferent as ice henceforward all the days of my life.

Ragnhild is properly in clover. The thick stair carpet m.u.f.fles every step; she can run upstairs whenever she pleases and slip down again in a moment without a sound.

"I can't make it out about Fruen," says Ragnhild.

"Here she's come back, and ought to be happy and good tempered as could be, and instead she's all tears and frowning. I heard the Captain telling her today: 'Now do be a little reasonable, Lovise,' he said.