Married Part 4

Since Theodore was a member of the upper cla.s.ses the scandal was hushed up. A few years later he pa.s.sed his final, and was sent by the doctor to Spa. The amount of quinine which he had taken had affected his knees and he walked with two sticks. At Spa he looked so ill that he was a conspicuous figure even in a crowd of invalids.

But an unmarried woman of thirty-five, a German, took compa.s.sion on the unhappy man. She spent many hours with him in a lonely summer arbour in the park, discussing the problems of life. She was a member of a big evangelical society, whose object was the raising of the moral standard. She showed him prospectuses for newspapers and magazines, the princ.i.p.al mission of which was the suppression of prost.i.tution.

"Look at me," she said, "I am thirty-five years old and enjoy excellent health! What fools' talk it is to say that immorality is a necessary evil. I have watched and fought a good fight for Christ's sake."

The young clergyman silently compared her well-developed figure, her large hips, with his own wasted body.

"What a difference there is between human beings in this world," was his unspoken comment.

In the autumn the Rev. Theodore Wennerstroem and Sophia Leidschutz, spinster, were engaged to be married.

"Saved!" sighed the father, when the news reached him in his house at Stockholm.

"I wonder how it will end," thought the brother in his barracks. "I'm afraid that my poor Theodore is 'one of those Asra who die when they love.'"

Theodore Wennerstroem was married. Nine months after the wedding his wife presented him with a boy who suffered from rickets--another thirteen months and Theodore Wennerstroem had breathed his last.

The doctor who filled up the certificate of death, looked at the fine healthy woman, who stood weeping by the small coffin which contained the skeleton of her young husband of not much over twenty years.

"The plus was too great, the minus too small," he thought, "and therefore the plus devoured the minus."

But the father, who received the news of his son's death on a Sunday, sat down to read a sermon. When he had finished, he fell into a brown study.

"There must be something very wrong with a world where virtue is rewarded with death," he thought.

And the virtuous widow, _nee_ Leidschutz, had two more husbands and eight children, wrote pamphlets on overpopulation and immorality. But her brother-in-law called her a cursed woman who killed her husbands.

The anything but virtuous lieutenant married and was father of six children. He got promotion and lived happily to the end of his life.

LOVE AND BREAD

The a.s.sistant had not thought of studying the price of wheat before he called on the major to ask him for the hand of his daughter; but the major had studied it.

"I love her," said the a.s.sistant.

"What's your salary?" said the old man.

"Well, twelve hundred crowns, at present; but we love one another...."

"That has nothing to do with me; twelve hundred crowns is not enough."

"And then I make a little in addition to my salary, and Louisa knows that my heart...."

"Don't talk nonsense! How much in addition to your salary?"

He seized paper and pencil.

"And my feelings...."

"How much in addition to your salary?"

And he drew hieroglyphics on the blotting paper.

"Oh! We'll get on well enough, if only...."

"Are you going to answer my question or not? How much in addition to your salary? Figures! figures, my boy! Facts!"

"I do translations at ten crowns a sheet; I give French lessons, I am promised proof-correcting...."

"Promises aren't facts! Figures, my boy! Figures! Look here, now, I'll put it down. What are you translating?"

"What am I translating? I can't tell you straight off."

"You can't tell me straight off? You are engaged on a translation, you say; can't you tell me what it is? Don't talk such rubbis.h.!.+"

"I am translating Guizot's _History of Civilisation_, twenty-five sheets."

"At ten crowns a sheet makes two hundred and fifty crowns. And then?"

"And then? How can I tell beforehand?"

"Indeed, can't you tell beforehand? But you ought to know. You seem to imagine that being married simply means living together and amusing yourselves! No, my dear boy, there will be children, and children require feeding and clothing."

"There needn't be babies directly, if one loves _as we love_ one another."

"How the d.i.c.kens do you love one another?"

"_As we love_ one another." He put his hand on his waistcoat.

"And won't there be any children if people love as you love? You must be mad! But you are a decent, respectable member of society, and therefore I'll give my consent; but make good use of the time, my boy, and increase your income, for hard times are coming. The price of wheat is rising."

The a.s.sistant grew red in the face when he heard the last words, but his joy at the old man's consent was so great that he seized his hand and kissed it. Heaven knew how happy he was! When he walked for the first time down the street with his future bride on his arm, they both radiated light; it seemed to them that the pa.s.sers-by stood still and lined the road in honour of their triumphal march; and they walked along with proud eyes, squared shoulders and elastic steps.

In the evening he called at her house; they sat down in the centre of the room and read proofs; she helped him. "He's a good sort," chuckled the old man. When they had finished, he took her in his arms and said: "Now we have earned three crowns," and then he kissed her. On the following evening they went to the theatre and he took her home in a cab, and that cost twelve crowns.

Sometimes, when he ought to have given a lesson in the evening, he (is there anything a man will not do for love's sake?) cancelled his lesson and took her out for a walk instead.

But the wedding-day approached. They were very busy. They had to choose the furniture. They began with the most important purchases.

Louisa had not intended to be present when he bought the bedroom furniture, but when it came to the point she went with him. They bought two beds, which were, of course, to stand side by side. The furniture had to be walnut, every single piece real walnut. And they must have spring mattresses covered with red and white striped tick, and bolsters filled with down; and two eiderdown quilts, exactly alike. Louisa chose blue, because she was very fair.

They went to the best stores. They could not do without a red hanging-lamp and a Venus made of plaster of Paris. Then they bought a dinner-service; and six dozen differently shaped gla.s.ses with cut edges; and knives and forks, grooved and engraved with their initials.

And then the kitchen utensils! Mama had to accompany them to see to those.

And what a lot he had to do besides! There were bills to accept, journeys to the banks and interviews with tradespeople and artisans; a flat had to be found and curtains had to be put up. He saw to everything. Of course he had to neglect his work; but once he was married, he would soon make up for it.